A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes India’s proposed new e-commerce rules are a cause for concern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for companies, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.
India this week spooked online retailers like Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart by outlining plans to limit “flash sales”, reining in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances.
The Washington-headquartered US-India Business Council (USIBC), of which Amazon and Walmart are members, described the rules as concerning in an internal email, saying some provisions were in line with New Delhi’s stance on other big digital companies.
India’s draft plan “includes several concerning policies, including significant limits on platforms’ ability to organise sales and handle grievances,” USIBC said in an email to its members.
USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart, an issue that has often soured trade relations between India and United States.
USIBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new rules – open for consultation until July 6 – are expected to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion (roughly Rs. 14,84,650 crores) by 2026.
They will also apply to Indian firms like Tata’s BigBasket and Reliance Industries’ JioMart, but the proposal comes after…
