Amazon India Makes ‘Country of Origin’ Mandatory for Products
Jul. 16, 2020Confirmingrumors,Amazon India has made it mandatory for sellers to reveal the ‘country of origin’, starting next week. The move is applicable to both new and existing product listings.
Sellers on Amazon India must add the detail as a mandatory attributefrom the 21st of July. As per reports, this is in accordance with the Legal Metrology Act of 2009. The e-commerce giant hasasked sellers to add country of origin to listings by the 10th of August.
In other words, thecompany is providing just three weeks of notice to sellers. If a seller fails to do so within the deadline, it will apparently lead to enforcement action that includes suppression of the listing.
Interestingly, the government seems to have not set a deadline for e-commerce companies to add details regarding the origin country of products.“If someone is deciding to become compliant with the rules before any deadline, there’s nothing wrong with that. But there has been no mandate with respect to this,”a senior government official toldET.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), however, had asked e-commerce giants to add country of origin to new listings by August 1 and existing listings by October 1 last week.
All these developments are happening at a time when anti-China sentiments are prevalent in India, whichurges people to boycott Chinese productsand switch to homegrown alternatives.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
