Govt Pulls Up Amazon, Byju's for Anti-Consumer Practices: Report

The consumer affairs department has pulled up Amazon and Byju’s for anti-consumer practices, according to a Financial Express (FE) report. The department pulled up Amazon’s algorithms, prioritise their private labels and products of the companies where it has investments. Byju’s has reportedly been asked to stop advertisements that further its business while misleading customers.

Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary of department of consumer affairs, was quoted in the FE report as saying, “We have told Amazon that your algorithms and the way you throw results at people have to be fair. You can’t have your own labels and companies in which you have invested appear on top of search results. This is not fair.”

He added that the whole consumer protection paradigm is about fair trading practices. “You might be the world’s largest company but the balance between the seller and the consumer needs to be maintained. We gave them a piece of our mind.”

“We had called all the edtech companies and said don’t put pressure on students. Don’t have Shah Rukh Khan telling a mom that two tutors are better than one tutor, get two for the price of one,” Singh said, according to the report. He added that the company agreed to the counsel before the government could proceed with hard steps.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, empowers the consumer affairs department to penalise companies for misleading ads and unfair trade practices. Under the Act, consumers have the right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices, restrictive trade practices and unscrupulous exploitation of consumers. A Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is also there, which can act upon complaints by consumers as well as take up matters on its own.

According to the Act, the CCPA regulates matters relating to violation of rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of public & consumers and promotes, protects and enforces the rights of consumers as a class.

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