Centre proposes 'country of origin' filter on e-commerce sites

NEW DELHI: Consumer affairs department, in a draft notification, has proposed that every e-commerce company selling imported products must provide a “searchable and sortable filter” for “country of origin” with their product listings. This proposed change in the Legal Metrology Rules is aimed at helping consumers make quick choices as per their preference.

TOI on July 26 had first reported this plan of govt. The department had suggested e-commerce companies explore this provision on their websites and mobile apps for products.

At present, companies display the country of origin of items under the product description option and to check this, buyers need to go through the entire information of each product, which is time taking. Officials said the facility can be created easily considering that many of the e-commerce platforms have filters on their sites and apps such as price range, brand, type of product and different sizes. Hence adding another filter on country of origin is feasible.

Meanwhile, the consumer affairs department has notified amended Legal Metrology Rules, stating that 18 different weights and measures will be verified by government approved test centres. These include water meter, sphygmomanometer, clinical thermometer, automatic rail weighbridges, tape measures, non-automatic weighing instruments, load cell, beam scale, counter machine, gas and energy meters, moisture meters and speed meters for vehicles.