BigBasket, Flipkart, Amazon and others to display expiry date and MRP of products on their platform

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has now issued a new notice what directs e-commerce companies to declare the expiry dates and maximum retail prices of packaged consumer products on their platforms. The new rules are meant to protect consumers from being sold old goods.

This new move from the government seems like a good one that will benefit the consumers more. According to Economic Times, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, in a notification dated June 23, has amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 to bring e-commerce companies and online marketplaces under its purview. Under these rules, e-commerce companies will also have to display the country of origin on their online product pages. These rules will be effective from today, January 1, 2018.

"An e-commerce entity shall ensure that the mandatory declarations as specified, except the month and year in which the commodity is manufactured or packed, shall be displayed on the digital and electronic network used for e-commerce transactions," states the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2017.

With the implementation of the new rules, on-demand grocery platforms like BigBasket and Grofers that stock inventory, as well as online marketplaces such as Flipkart and Amazon India, will be observing the new rules.

Additionally, the new rules state that the "responsibility of the correctness of declarations lie with the manufacturer or seller or dealer or importer." The onus of ensuring due diligence before dispatching the products, however, will lie with the online marketplaces.

An Amazon spokesperson has told ET, "We work with our sellers to ensure that our customers receive safe food products well within their indicated shelf lives." "We train employees to check best-before dates while storing and packing food products at our fulfillment centers."

Notably, Grofers is also now planning to begin displaying expiry dates for batches of products on its platform. "Typically, a product will ship to a customer only if it is within a reasonable window of usage," said co-founder Albinder Dhindsa has expressed. "In case a customer complains about the expiry date within 48 hours of delivery, we offer a replacement. Expiry related complaints are fewer than two in 1,000 (products) for us." BigBasket and Flipkart are yet to make comments on the matter.

The new rules have been formulated after Food Safety and Standards Authority of India recently conducted discussions on its LocalCircles platform. Here a majority of the people complained about products being sold just before expiry or best-before dates.