Five years since the MRP and best before date were made mandatory on e-commerce platforms, one in two consumers say they can find this information now, a survey by LocalCircles has said.
According to the survey results, 47% of the respondents found MRP displayed for all products they purchased on e-commerce sites, while 21% found best before date displayed for all human consumption products.
Consumers said established platforms and their sellers were more compliant in this regard than newer ones. They also flagged violations like MRP field not displayed or best before date not displayed by platforms like Tata Cliq, BlinkIt, Lenskart, Meesho, Purplle, Dunzo, Patanjali and others, the report said.
“Consumers across India in 2016 had escalated the issue of missing MRP and best before dates on e-commerce platforms on LocalCircles, which conducted a national survey and escalated the same to the Department of Consumer Affairs for corrective action…” the survey report said.
Subsequently, the Department of Consumer Affairs introduced the Packaged Commodity Rules (PCR) 2017 effective January 1, 2018 and mandated the display of MRP for all packaged products listed for sale on ecommerce sites and apps operating in India.
“Via its studies conducted in 2018 and 2021, LocalCircles was able to escalate issues faced by consumers… In the first study, 22% of the consumers were able to find MRPs on all packaged products. This percentage has increased to 35% in 2021. Further, the percentage of consumers saying “they were able to find MRPs on less than 20% of packaged products” decreased from 18% in 2018 to 16% on 2021. Percentage of consumers who were able to find MRPs on 20-50% packaged products decreased from 39% to 33% in the same period,” it said.
Five years after the amendment of rules, as complaints from consumers continued, LocalCircles conducted a fresh survey to find out if the display of MRP and best before dates on ecommerce platforms has continued to improve or have things come to a standstill.
The survey received over 23,000 responses from consumers located in 307 districts of India. Around 62% respondents were men while 38% respondents were women. Around 44% respondents were from tier 1, 34% from tier 2 and 22% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
Around 47% indicated that they found MRP displayed on all packaged products on e-commerce platforms, 8% found no MRP displayed on any products they
bought from online platforms.
Consumers who indicated that MRP was found displayed online for all packaged products has risen from 22% in 2018 to 35% in 2021 and now to 47%, LocalCircles said.
Around 21% consumers found “best before” or expiry date displayed for all human consumption packaged products on e-commerce platforms. Consumers who indicated that best before date was found displayed online for all human consumption packaged products rose from 10% in 2021 to 21% in 2023. Another 31% were able to find the information for 20-50% of the products.
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