The Making of Consumer Protection Act 2019 and Fixing Liabilities on Electronic Intermediaries in India: A Critical Appraisal from Consumer Protection Perspective

Abstract

One of the objectives of enacting the Consumer Protection Act 2019 is to protect consumers from unfair trade practices in e-commerce and make the consumer law relevant to the present day’s trade. E-commerce has brought forth numerous challenges in consumer protection due to the distinct nature of this business. Information and communication technology plays major role in e-commerce business. Involvement of information and communication technology in e-commerce has developed a new set of intermediaries in business, also known as “electronic intermediaries”. Electronic intermediaries play a crucial role in e-commerce. The existing legal framework in India largely exempts electronic intermediaries from liability. Yet, looking into the emerging functions of electronic intermediaries in e-commerce and the importance of consumer protection in e-commerce, there is a serious requirement to relook the exiting legal provision providing “safe harbour” to e-commerce intermediaries for effective protection of consumers. This paper is a humble attempt to analyse the Consumer Protection Act 2019 from the perspective of fixing liabilities on e-commerce intermediaries to identify the resulted outcomes and the gaps.