Indian e-commerce products to carry MRP labelling from 2018

11-Jul-2017 - Last updated on 12-Jul-2017 at 03:49 GMT

E-commerce products will now have to carry mandatory retail prices and other essential information from next year.

According to new labelling rules from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, amendments to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 have been passed to regulate pre-packaged commodities, including food and nutrition products.

"Products on e-commerce platforms to display declarations required under the amended rules," an official statement said.

Consumer minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that the rules had been amended to balance consumer protection with ease of doing business.

The amended rules also prohibit dual MRPs on products, saying that "no person shall declare different MRPs on an identical pre-packaged commodity, unless allowed under any law".

The rules add: ”Goods displayed by the seller on e-commerce platform should contain declarations required under the rules, like name and address of the manufacturer, packer and importer, name of the commodities sourced by the institution for their own use.”

The provisions regarding food product declarations have been harmonised with labelling regulations under the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006.