Draft e-commerce policy ensures online markets meet standards

New Delhi: Conformity assessment procedures will be put in place to verify that goods and services sold on e-commerce platforms meet required standards and technical regulations, according to the draft e-commerce policy.

The policy, which is under discussion, also stated that actions and things which cannot be done by the online platform entities "can also not be done" by any of its associates and related parties.

Government may, from time to time, notify parties which fall in the definition of associates and related parties, it said. "Conformity assessment procedures will be put in place in order to verify that goods and services sold, on e-commerce platforms, meet required standards and technical regulations, as prescribed by sector specific regulations/rules," the draft said. These procedures are related to testing, verification and certification of goods and services, among others. It also said that a long-run endeavour will be to convert GeM (Government e-marketplace) into a marketplace where "ordinary consumers" could procure, increasing the efficiency in the Indian economy.

Currently, only the government departments and agencies are allowed to procure goods and services from the GeM portal. According to the draft policy, an e-commerce operator operating in marketplace or hybrid mode will have to manage its relationship with sellers on its platform in an agnostic manner and without being partial to any of its sellers. It has talked about areas like definition of e-commerce, code of conduct, creation of conducive environment, enhancing exports, monitoring, meeting regulatory challenges of the sector, handling of data, free and informed choice of consumers, fair competition, anti-counterfeit and anti-piracy.

Last week an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by officials of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal trade (DPIIT) had discussed this draft.