SC notice to Centre on plea for ecommerce sites to disclose country of origin of goods

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Union government on a plea for a direction to the Centre to formulate a law in order to ensure that ecommerce sites and business houses declare “Country of Origin” of goods so as to enable customers to take informed decisions.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde, A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian sought a response from the Centre on a PIL by advocate Divya Jyoti Singh.

The petitioner contended that ecommerce portals surreptitiously do not disclose the "Country of Origin" for the products on their web-portals.

"It seems large influx of junk is made and imported from China. Indian consumers are still kept in dark by not disclosing the Country of Origin, for if the consumers do not know where the products are made, they cannot stop buying them or to put it in other words let the consumers make an informed decision," the plea claimed.

In an extraordinary circumstance when the entire nation stands united and there is a wave in the country for boycotting the Chinese products, ecommerce portals are playing with the sentiments of people and defeating the Prime Minister's call to use local products and be self-reliant, the petition submitted.

The petitioner sought formulating a law, which makes it a mandatory for all the ecommerce portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc to disclose and display the Country of Origin for all goods sold in India in a proper size that makes it legible for the consumers.