Why are e-tailers on notice for legal metrology?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Many quick- and e-commerce firms have reportedly received notices from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) for allegedly violating mandatory declaration rules of the Legal Metrology Act. Mint explains the law and how the CCPA protects consumers.
According to CNBC-TV18, the CCPA, part of the consumer affairs ministry, has sent notices to 11 e-retailers including Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Meesho for allegedly failing to add basic information on products, such as manufacturing and expiry dates. They have also been accused of violating other packaging and labelling norms—these also apply to manufacturers and wholesalers of consumer goods. The CCPA sent notices after hundreds of consumers complained of getting perishable products close to or after their expiry dates.
The companies have 15 days to respond, the media reported. Also read | What the border pact means for India and China A 2011 amendment to the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, says every pre-packaged item must carry information on its weight, the quantity of goods, dimensions (if relevant, such as for clothes), dates of manufacturing and expiry (or best before use), details of the manufacturer and the maximum retail price. All the details must be printed in ‘standard units’, such as rupees for price, grams and kilos for weights.
The law goes into even greater detail about how products should be labelled. As per the law, all information must be printed in English or Hindi in the Devanagari script, but sellers can also include other languages. Legal metrology officials can inspect and seize any amount of goods suspected to violate the Act.
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