Amazon pulls off several products in India owing to new e-commerce rules
- IndiaGlitz, [Friday,February 01 2019]
The revised e-commerce rules of Amazon India caused several of its products to disappear from the site late Thursday night. The items that were taken down included Echo speakers, batteries, and floor cleaners among many.
The rules will reportedly play as a major advantage for small retailers who have been longing for tougher competition rules, considering how their biggest competitors Amazon and Flipkart had an unfair advantage. Even though Amazon has been lobbying against the new rules, a number of its products started disappearing from the site as they failed to comply with the regulations. The new e-commerce investment rules bar online retailers from selling products via vendors in which they have an equity interest, and also from making deals with sellers to sell exclusively on their platforms.
Customers have been having growing concerns over the unavailability of some of Amazon’s vendors, including the Amazon pantry, a grocery service managed by company affiliates. The anxious customers have requested the company to fix the issue regardless of the government rules. Clothing from Indian department store chain Shopper's Stop was also no longer available, as Amazon owns 5% of the company.
Flipkart seemed to have expressed displeasure on the rules as well, however, they agreed to comply. “We believe that policy should be created in a consultative, market-driven manner and we will continue to work with the government to promote fair, pro-growth policies,” Flipkart’s chief of corporate affairs said.