Govt. Proposes 'Country of Origin' Filter for Ecommerce Players

Centre Proposes Mandatory 'Country of Origin' Filter for Ecommerce Players

SUMMARY

Centre’s draft asserts that every ecommerce entity listing imported products must provide consumers with an efficient way to search and sort products by country of origin

The amendment aims to provide Indian manufacturers with equal visibility and encourage greater domestic consumption

Ecommerce players were already mandated to add the 'Country of Origin' tag on all their featured products

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs’ (MCA’s) department of consumer affairs has proposed a mandatory requirement for all ecommerce platforms to introduce searchable and sortable filters indicating the ‘Country of Origin’ for all packaged commodities sold online.

As per the draft legal metrology (packaged commodities) (second) amendment rules, 2025, released by the ministry, every ecommerce entity listing imported products must provide consumers with an efficient way to search and sort products by country of origin. The government is seeking public and stakeholder comments on the amendment till November 22.

The government is positioning this initiative as a key step towards consumer empowerment, transparency in digital marketplaces, and aligning with government priorities of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Vocal for Local.’

“It ensures a level playing field for Indian manufacturers, helping domestic products gain equal visibility alongside imported goods and encouraging consumers to choose locally made alternatives. The introduction of country-of-origin filters will also assist in efficiently monitoring compliance, verifying product information and identifying violations without requiring manual review of each listing,” the ministry said in a statement

Important to note that the MCA had mandated ecommerce players to add the ‘Country of Origin’ tag on all their featured products via the Consumer Protection (Ecommerce) Rules, 2020. Besides, the rules also mandated all sellers registered with Government-e-Marketplace (GeM) to display the origin of each product sold by them.

However, many ecommerce platforms flouted the mandate to display the ‘country origin’ tag on their products in 2020. Back then, the Delhi High Court had sent notices to Amazon and Flipkart on a plea seeking to display the names of the manufacturing countries for products on their websites.

In 2021, the Centre sent out 148 notices to ecommerce players flouting the ‘country of origin’ tag on products sold. Out of these, 56 compounded it (the offence) and paid up to INR 34 lakh.