Consumers struggle to find product MRP and best before information on most ecommerce websites

12th April 2018, New Delhi: The increasing dependency of our daily lives on ecommerce websites is now evident. Along with the comfort they bring to the consumers, regular cases emerge where the consumer complain of being cheated by these ecommerce platforms. Cases of inflated MRP being displayed, low shelf life consumables being shipped etc. are some of the regular ones.

The Department of Consumer Affairs made amendments to the Packaged Commodity Rules in June 2017 to further protect the interest of the consumer. PCR 2017 came into effect from 1st January 2018 and mandated that ecommerce sites display the MRP of all products and best before or expiry date of all human consumption items.

LocalCircles conducted a 3-month pulse check of Packaged Commodity Rules 2017 which included 3 polls and received 16,000+ votes. In the first poll, 62% consumers said that they could not find MRP information on packaged products on ecommerce sites in the last 3 months. Only 38% said that they were able to find the MRP info in majority cases.

62% consumers could not find MRP information on packaged products on ecommerce Sites

Many ecommerce sites do not mention the actual product MRP and just mention the list price, which may be inflated so that big discounts could be offered.

In the pulse check conducted at the end of January 2018, 60% consumers had said that they were unable to find MRP details in ecommerce sites. This number has now increased to 62%.

In the second poll, 87% consumers said that they could not find best before date information for human consumption items on ecommerce sites in the last 3 months. Only 13% were able to find it in majority of cases.

87% consumers could not find best before ate information for human consumption products on ecommerce sites

Many consumers had earlier reported on LocalCircles that the packaged food products that they order from ecommerce sites, many times have low shelf life remaining which leads to a lot of wastage as the consumers are not able to use it completely.

This number stood at 69% in the 1 month pulse check.

LocalCircles will be submitting the findings of this exercise to the Department of Consumer Affairs so that necessary action could be taken.

Some examples where the MRP rules are being followed:

Some examples where the ‘best before/expiry date’ rules are being followed:

Some examples where the MRP rules are not being followed:

Some examples where the ‘best before/expiry date’ rules are not being followed:

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