DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS

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• Centre plans tomato procurement from key growing states as prices skyrocket

  The rise in tomato prices is reported across the country, and not just limited to a particular region or geography. In key cities, it rose to as high as Rs 150-160 per kg.

  

• Govt asks top industries bodies for advising retailers not to take consumers' mobile numbers without consent

  "I urge upon you to suitably advise the retailers that the mobile number of the consumers should not be taken without their express consent at the time of sale of any goods or services and, providing the same should not be made a mandatory pre-condition for sale," Singh said in the letter dated May 26.

  

• Consumer Affairs Dept directs retailers to calibrate retail margins for pulses

  The Consumer Affairs Department has advised retailers to calibrate the retail margins in such a way that the composition of pulses consumption basket of households is not disturbed by price rise.

  

• Fake online reviews: New guidelines and how will they benefit consumers

  On Monday (November 21), the government announced new standards after constituting a committee on checking fake and deceptive reviews on June 10 earlier this year. The new standard titled “IS 19000:2022” under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) mandates platforms to have review administrators to moderate reviews to filter (using tools or manually) biased or fraudulent reviews.

  

• Govt to publish frameworks to check fake reviews on e-commerce websites next week

  Since e-commerce involves a virtual shopping experience without any opportunity to physically view or examine the product, consumers heavily rely on reviews posted on platforms to see the opinion and experiences of users who have already purchased the goods or services.

  

• Mobile industry agrees for phased roll-out of uniform device chargers: Govt

  This was decided during a discussion in the meeting of the inter-ministerial task force chaired by Consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh here. The representatives of industry associations such as MAIT, FICCI, CII, educational institutions, including IIT Kanpur, IIT (BHU), Varanasi as well as the central government ministries, including the Environment Ministry, attended the meeting.

  

• E-com entities may face heavy penalty for posting fake reviews

  According to highly-placed sources, a committee formed by the Department of Consumer Affairs is finalising changes in the norms related to fake reviews, which were formulated by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in 2021.

  

• Govt panel to develop framework on checking fake, deceptive reviews in e-commerce

  Under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has been established, w.e.f July 24, 2020 to regulate matters, inter alia, relating to false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of public and consumers as a class, said the Minister of State, Consumer Affairs, Ashwini Choubey in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

  

• Indian government sent 448 notices to ecommerce companies for violations

  Violations were pertinent to the rules about the display of the origin country of the product and other details on their website or portal.

  

• E-commerce platforms not publishing negative ratings/reviews in India: Report

  Nearly 65 per cent consumers found the product ratings on e-commerce sites to be positively biased, indicating that sellers may be influencing ratings for their products to attract consumers and platforms are not proactively acting in such situations.

  

• Government to come out with legal framework to stop restaurants from levying service charge

  The meeting was attended by representatives of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) and consumer organisations, including Mumbai Grahak Panchayat and Pushpa Girimaji.