Flipkart, Meesho, Other E-Commerce Giants To Face Legal Action For Selling Unsafe, Uncertified Products

E-commerce giants including Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, BigBasket, and Myntra are likely to face lawsuits for allegedly selling unsafe and non-certified products on their platforms, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Bureau of Indian Standards, a statutory body functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, is in the process of filing legal cases against these platforms for violating Section 17 of the BIS Act 2016. Defaulters could be fined up to ten times the value of non-compliant goods sold, and even face imprisonment of up to two years depending on the severity of the violation.

The crackdown comes nearly two months after notices were issued to these e-commerce companies, following BIS inspections that uncovered various products—including toys, shoes, baby diapers, kitchen appliances, and electrical equipment—being sold without BIS certification or bearing counterfeit ISI marks. The ISI mark is a mandatory standards compliance symbol for industrial products.

In March, a series of raids were also carried out at Amazon and Flipkart warehouses across various cities, including Gurugram, Chennai, Delhi, Faridabad, and Lucknow. During these operations, the BIS investigators seized approximately 15,000 uncertified products. The total estimated value of the seized goods is over Rs 1 crore, according to officials.

The consumer affairs ministry underscored the necessity of BIS certification for these products due to the potential dangers they pose. Non-certified items, without an ISI Mark or with invalid license numbers, haven't undergone independent testing to ensure safety and performance.

Facilities of Techvision International Pvt., a major supplier of the non-certified products, were also raided. BIS had already filed two court cases against the company for violations of Section 17(1) and 17(3) of the BIS Act, 2016, the consumer affairs ministry had said in a statement on March 15.

BIS has been actively conducting rigorous testing of commonly used consumer goods to verify compliance with the prescribed safety and quality standards.

Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, BigBasket and Myntra did not respond to NDTV Profit's queries till the publication of this story.