Retailers slam ‘unfair’ e-commerce players, accuse firms of selling non-essentials in violation of rules

An Amazon customer’s invoice shows the order was placed on April 28 when the lockdown was in place. Representation pic

Retailers are riled as the e-commerce platforms are allegedly breaking rules that barred delivery of non-essential products during the lockdown in Maharashtra.

The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association (FRTWA), an umbrella organisation of brick-and-mortar stores, has written a scathing email to the state government about e-commerce platforms playing unfair.

Viren Shah, president, Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association

The shopkeepers who retail non-essential goods like garments, home décor items, bags, etc, had to down their shutters as the state declared a lockdown in mid-April. Ahead of the announcement of a complete lockdown, the retail shopkeepers had agreed to follow the rules but one of their conditions was that even online shopping of non-essential products be barred, so that there is a level playing field. Currently, only stores selling essential items are allowed to open from 7 am to 11 am.

FRTWA's email to the Chief Minister's Office on May 2 states, "Since the past few days, our members have been regularly complaining that in spite of e-commerce platforms not allowed to sell non-essential items in Maharashtra, they are blatantly breaking rules, and defying the order of notification by the Maharashtra government... Kindly ensure that they should not be allowed to sell non-essentials."

The communication ends with hope for positive action on this count.

FRTWA President Viren Shah said, "We have witnessed online platforms selling fashionable clothes, pouches, wallets. Are these essential goods? Do they fall in that category? If they do, this is certainly news to us. They obviously do not, so why are they being allowed to sell?"

Shah said the digital platforms were complying when shops closed initially, but slowly, rules were being broken and these non-essential goods became ‘deliverable' on their websites. "I initially got a few calls from our members saying that rules were being broken. Then friends started calling to say they have bought pouches, etc, from online platforms. I told them to send us the physical proof like cash memos. We started checking and saw that non-essential items were being sold."

"We have made the state government aware of this. If there is no action, ‘offline' shopkeepers will be forced to sell non-essential items like garments and stationery in the 7 am to 11 am time frame," Shah added.

He reminded the government that "besides the current heavy losses, we must remember that stores will have lakhs worth of goods unsold because of the lockdown. They will have to sell them whenever the lockdown lifts and are given permission. If people are allowed to buy online in the interim period, it will become doubly difficult or near impossible to sell this stock."

The FRTWA also sent a picture of an cash memo of a customer's purchase of three T-shirts from amazon.in. The order was placed on April 28 when the lockdown was in place. Amazon did not reply to emails for comment.