India in the recent years has been experiencing an exponential growth in e- commerce and there are new companies springing up at a rapid rate. About the only things accelerating faster than the use of the internet are the new risks that are associated with the medium's commercial applications. Although internet transaction have increased efficiency in transactions and increased accessibility for consumers, there exist many pitfalls that have not yet been satisfactorily dealt with. While growth in the e-commerce industry is sweeping across the country, there appears to be inadequate supervision (both governmental and non-governmental) and laws dealing with quality control for these new companies and this is what makes the rapid growth alarming. While there appears to be some discussion on a legal framework, there are virtually no watchdogs in the form of consumer NGOs or otherwise. As a result, it is unlikely that this new form of business will deal effectively with the issue of consumer welfare, which includes issues such as trust, privacy and sovereignty of consumers.
In light of the above negatives associated with e-commerce (specially with buying on the Internet) and taking into consideration the rapid growth of this industry, it is important that consumer groups in India take this problem seriously and come up with guidelines that can be used to make shopping on the Internet a safe experience. These guidelines can feed into the governmental process of making cyber laws to ensure that the issue of consumer welfare and sovereignty during internet shopping is addressed.
It is with this role in mind that CAG proposes to look at the experience of shopping on the Internet using available interactive Indian websites that allow consumers to shop on the Internet. The aim of this study will be to look at possible avenues of trade abuse by such e-commerce providers. The proposed study will examine these websites from the point of view of provision of contract terms such as guarantees/warrantees, refunds and for dispute settlement. The study will also examine the websites for hidden costs and misleading information, if any. The study will also look at whether the company explicitly mentions how it intends to use personal information of the consumer and other security and privacy issues. |
