Two of the biggest e-commerce retailers and arch-rivals, Flipkart and Amazon, are currently locked in a battle to woo customers with festive sale events. But, their party has been interrupted by Maharashtra Govt’s Legal Metrology Organisation (LMO) who believes that both e-commerce giants are defying said packaging norms.
As reported on Wednesday, the Legal Metrology Organisation carried out inspections at warehouses of e-commerce giants, Amazon and Flipkart in Bhiwandi in Thane district. The special team of officers had reason to believe that the e-commerce giants were in alleged violation of Legal Metrology Act, 2009. It was based upon numerous complaints filed by enraged customers against both the e-tailers. The charge was led by Amitabh Gupta, special inspector general of police and controller of legal metrology.
These 7-day long inspections were conducted over at the premises of Flipkart’s primary seller Instacart and Amazon Sellers Services Pvt Ltd. The teams seized a total of eighteen types of packaged commodities worth Rs 37 lakh from Instacart, and twenty-one types of commodities worth Rs 47.7 lakh. These items we seized by LMO as they did not conform to the ‘Package Commodity Rules, 2011. The total value of these seized items has been estimated at Rs. 85 lakhs.
Commenting on the seizure of said packaged commodity, Amitabh Gupta said,
The products are seized as these packages do not have declaration regarding the name and address of the manufacturer/packer/importer, price of the package, customer care number/email address, month and year of manufacturing/packing/import etc, and name of the commodity
Sellers of Flipkart and Amazon both tried to convince the authorities that they were just supplying products as per the orders from respective platforms. They both also brought in bills as evidence and tried to convince the officials that all products stored in the Flipkart or Amazon warehouses belonged to the e-commerce giants. But, LMO stuck to its guns and registered cases against both suppliers for not being able to meet packaging norms.
This lawsuit only adds to the troubles of Amazon who’s trying to one up its arch-enemy Flipkart in monthly sales. It has recently also been served with a ”show cause” notice for importing and selling used plus refurbished phones in India. Whereas Flipkart is itself marred by internal problems which are still causing top-tier executives to quit the company in search of better opportunities.
