Meanwhile, trade associations urged the government to not dilute the rules and opposed the deadline extension. After multiple stakeholders raised concerns over the proposed amendments to the E-Commerce Rules, the Department of Consumers Affairs on Monday extended the deadline for submitting comments and suggestions from July 6 to July 21, 2021. The government on June 21 proposed amendments that give the existing Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 more teeth. The proposed changes include new rules to address abuse of FDI regulations, the establishment of a grievance redressal mechanism, new display and labelling criteria for foreign goods, the prohibition of flash sales, data protection for customers, among other things. Read: Summary of the proposed amendments to E-Commerce Rules, 2020 Will have major impact on business model: Amazon, Tata At a meeting organised by the consumer affairs ministry, Amazon and Tata warned government officials that the proposed amendments would have a major impact on their business models, Reuters reported on Saturday. Amazon argued that the proposed rules will hurt small businesses on its platform who are already suffering from the impact of COVID-19. The company also said that some clauses were covered by existing law, the report stated. The rules state that related parties and associated enterprises of an e-commerce platform cannot be sellers on that platform. This will most likely impact Amazon, which has stakes in its two biggest sellers, Cloudtail and Appario. Tata Sons pointed out that this provision is also problematic for Tata Group because it prevents Tata's marketplace platform from selling Starbucks products because the company…
