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An E-commerce platform has approached the Delhi High court challenging the order issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) imposing a penalty of Rs one lakh for selling pressure cookers without the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) mark.
The Authority recently issued an order to recall the substandard pressure cookers sold by Amazon and reimburse the cost to the buyers. The CCPA has also imposed a penalty of Rs. one lakh. Justice Yashwant Varma listed the matter on September 19 after granting time to the counsel for CCPA to take instructions on the petition. Senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar submitted before the bench the notice of CCPA is without jurisdiction and the platform is only an intermediary as understood in the Shreya Singhal case. He also submitted that Amazon is like a mall owner and just because some shop is selling spurious apples does not mean that the mall owner can be hauled for it. "We are offering a platform. As soon as they (CCPA) pointed out, we put them (the company selling pressure cookers) off our marketplace," Nayar submitted. However, Justice Varma questioned Nayar about why doesn't Amazon undertake a preliminary exercise about whether the seller has a BIS certificate and if such an exercise is an impossibility. He further asked whether there is any obligation on portals like Amazon to conduct such exercises as well. Nayar said that Amazon is an e-commerce platform and it can't cause an investigation. The CCPA in August issued a notice to Amazon to inform the buyers, recall all 2265 pressure cookers sold through its platform and reimburse the price to the buyers. It was also directed to file a compliance report in 45 days. The CCPA has also directed Amazon to pay a penalty of Rs one lakh for allowing the sale of pressure cookers in "violation of" the Quality Control Order (QCO) and "violating" the rights of consumers. (ANI)
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