The Legal Metrology Department has rejected Amazon’s appeal against a notice asking it why it wasn’t displaying the country of origin of a product listing on its platform. The department, which falls under the Consumer Affairs Ministry, found that Amazon didn’t do its due diligence as a marketplace e-commerce platform in complying with the mandatory declarations required under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. It said that the complete address of the manufacturer was not displayed alongside the product listing on Amazon's website. MediaNama obtained a copy of the order, and has independently verified its authenticity from the Legal Metrology Department. The order was issued on February 2, and signed by B.N. Dixit, the Director of the Legal Metrology Department. By way of the order, the department can now proceed against Amazon. As per the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, first offences result in a fine of upto Rs 25,000, and subsequent violations will result in a penalty of Rs 50,000 and/or jail. The department, in October 2020, had sent notices to Amazon and Flipkart asking them to explain — within fifteen days — why action shouldn’t be taken against them for not displaying the country of origin in some product listings. In the notice, the department had highlighted certain products that were violating these rules. In Amazon’s case, it flagged one link — a sweatshirt made by US Polo. Amazon did not respond to our queries until the time of publishing. We reached out to the Metrology…
