GOVT INTRODUCES NEW E-COMMERCE POLICY: HOW IT IS GOING TO AFFECT AMAZON, GOOGLE, FACEBOOK AND OTHERS?

India has reformed certain e-commerce policies, which has been under work for at least two years. This step has been taken to reduce the dominance of global giants like Amzon.com INC., Google and Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc., and so on.

The Indian government has appointed an e-commerce regulator who will ensure that the industry is competitive with board access to relevant information. This way, local start-ups are likely to be benefited. This policy draft was prepared by the Ministry of Commerce’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

Under the new regulations, these e-commerce firms must provide the government with their source codes and algorithms which will help them ensure any “digitally induced biases.” The draft said, "It is in the interest of the Indian consumer and the local ecosystem that there are more service providers" and that "the network effects do not lead to creation of digital monopolies misusing their dominant market position.”

"Government, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, will define the categories of e-commerce that would require mirroring or localization," the draft added.

The companies will be given a period of 72 hours to submit the necessary information required. Further, e-commerce companies are also required to provide the consumers with details of the sellers, including their contact number, customer complaint contacts, email, and so on.

The policy also necessitates these companies to ensure that users can route transactions through formal payment channels for foreign e-commerce companies which use payment tokens.