Selling online in India now happens inside a real regulatory frame: the Consumer Protection Act 2019 and its E-Commerce Rules 2020 (with the dark-patterns and fake-review layers added since) impose specific, checkable duties on sellers and platforms — disclosures, grievance machinery, honest reviews, no manipulative design. The CCPA (Central Consumer Protection Authority) enforces with penalties and recalls, and consumer forums treat e-commerce sellers as easily-served defendants. Here is what the law actually requires of a seller, and the compliance that costs less than one dispute.
The disclosure duties
- Seller identity: legal name, address, contact details and — through platforms — the seller information customers can see; anonymity is non-compliance
- Product truth: total price with charge break-ups, accurate descriptions/images, country of origin (mandatory and enforced — the field that triggered mass listing takedowns), expiry dates where applicable, and warranty/guarantee terms
- Policy transparency: return/refund/exchange terms, shipping timelines and grievance contacts published upfront
- The 'as-is' honesty rule: images and claims must match the product shipped — deviation is the definitional unfair trade practice consumer forums penalise fastest
Conduct rules: what sellers must not do
The prohibited-practices list with real enforcement history: price manipulation (unjustified surge pricing, fake MRP inflation to show discounts), fake/misleading reviews — the IS 794:2022-backed regime prohibits posting or commissioning fake reviews, requires disclosure of paid/incentivised reviews, and platforms must verify review authenticity (sellers buying reviews now risk both platform bans and CCPA action), misleading advertisements (the CCPA's ad guidelines cover claims, endorsements and the influencer-disclosure rules — your affiliates' undisclosed #ad posts are your liability too), refusing legitimate refunds for defective/deficient goods, and dark patterns — the 2023 guidelines name thirteen banned manipulations: false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm-shaming, forced subscriptions, drip pricing, disguised ads and more. Audit your checkout against that list; several 'growth hacks' in common use are now named violations.
Every e-commerce entity needs a grievance officer: named, published contact, acknowledgment within 48 hours, resolution within one month. For sellers on marketplaces, the platform runs the primary machinery — but direct-to-consumer sellers must build their own (a designated person, a published email, a ticket log). It's the compliance item CCPA notices check first, and the log that proves good faith when a forum case arrives.
When disputes come anyway
- Consumer forums: three tiers by claim value (district up to ₹50 lakh — where e-commerce disputes live), buyer-residence jurisdiction, e-filing enabled (e-daakhil), and no-lawyer-needed design — meaning distant, small-value cases are cheap for buyers and expensive for you to fight
- The settlement math: defending a ₹8,000 dispute across three hearings in another state costs multiples of the claim — fair early resolution (through your grievance process, documented) is strategy, not weakness
- Mediation: the 2019 Act's built-in mediation route resolves faster — accept it for genuine disputes
- CCPA exposure: class-level unfair practices (fake reviews, dark patterns, misleading ads) attract suo-motu action — penalties up to ₹10 lakh (₹50 lakh for repeat) on misleading ads, plus recall/refund orders
The seller's compliance stack (one afternoon)
The practical checklist: listing hygiene (origin country, true images, price break-ups, warranty terms — templated into every SKU upload); policy pages (returns/refunds/shipping/grievance published on your site and store pages); the grievance officer (named, published, logged); review integrity (no purchased reviews, incentivised feedback disclosed, affiliate/influencer contracts requiring #ad disclosures); checkout audit against the dark-patterns list (kill the fake timers and pre-ticked add-ons); and the dispute file discipline (order records, dispatch evidence, communications — the documents that win forum cases are created before disputes, not after). This entire stack costs a day of setup; its absence prices in penalties, platform suspensions and forum judgments.
How Aidwish helps
Aidwish audits and builds e-commerce compliance — listing and policy reviews against the Rules, grievance-machinery setup, review/advertising integrity frameworks, dark-pattern checkout audits and dispute-response support — so growth never runs ahead of the law it's growing inside.