SUMMARY
You can’t have your labels and companies in which you have invested appear on top of search results: Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh
You might be the world’s largest company, but the balance between the seller and the consumer needs to be maintained: Singh
Singh also warned the edtech companies against advertising too much and pressuring parents
Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh on Monday (February 20) said that the Indian government has told Amazon that it isn’t fair if its private labels or the brands it has invested in appear at the top of its search results.
“I am just coming from a meeting where we 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. That is not fair,” Singh said at the 17th India Digital Summit, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
Singh said that the 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,” he added.
Incidentally, Amazon has had its fair share of trouble with its private labels, including the likes of AmazonBasics and Solimo across the world. The ecommerce major has been accused of creating similar products as the popular companies and selling the said products under its many private labels for cheap.
Amazon was also the focus of a Competition Commission of India (CCI) probe last year as the competition watchdog raided the premises of the now-defunct Cloudtail and Appario Retail amid allegations of anti-competition practices.
Don’t Advertise Too Much: Govt To Edtech Companies
Singh also took a dig at edtech firms which have been accused of over-selling their courses through exorbitant marketing campaigns featuring celebrities.
“We had called all the edtech companies. I said, ‘Boss, don’t advertise so much. 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’,” said Singh, adding that the edtech startups agreed that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs can take hard steps in the matter.
BYJU’S was at the centre of controversy late last year as it was alleged to mis-sell its products and buy student databases to contact parents. While the edtech decacorn denied the charge, it also implemented sweeping changes in its marketing strategy throughout its group companies.
BYJU’s implemented a policy that the students whose parents have a monthly income of less than INR 25,000 won’t be sold any courses. The edtech company also introduced a four-point tech-driven sales process over mis-selling allegations.
