The Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, comprising of Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Talwant Singh, has overturned an order from a Single Judge of the Delhi High Court, which had restrained platforms such as Amazon and Snapdeal from selling goods of Direct Selling Entities like Amway, Modicare and Oriflame. Amazon Seller Services Private Limited (represented by Saikrishna Rajgopal), Cloudtail India Private Limited (represented by Gurukrishna Kumar) and Snapdeal Private Limited (represented by Rajshekar Rao) had appealed the order. This is a significant judgment for all intermediaries, given that both the courts and the government are imposing greater "due diligence" obligations on intermediaries. The court, in the latest order, has said that: Section 79 of the IT Act governs both passive and active intermediaries, and doesn't distinguish between them so as far as the availability of safe harbour provisions are concerned. The Division Bench judgment in Myspace vs Super Cassettes says that Section 79 of the IT Act is not an "enforceable provision", but merely provides an "affirmative defence" to entities which fulfill the criteria of being intermediaries. Section 79 of the IT Act is meant to ensure that the liability for non-compliance and/or violation of law by a third party, that is, the seller is not fastened on the online market place. The issues under consideration in the case 1. Permission required, as per the Direct Selling Guidelines Among the considerations in the previous order, to restrain the sale of products from direct selling companies on online platforms…
