The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out raids on several sellers across the country for alleged money laundering activities, which are said to be through e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart.
According to reports, the ED is conducting a pan-India search against subsidiaries and sellers of leading e-commerce players. So far, it is said that the regulator is raiding nearly 24 seller locations in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.
As per sources, ED investigation was already underway in this case based on alleged FEMA regulations.
In the ED raids, the entities are believed to be scrutinized to probe alleged money laundering activities through online e-commerce platforms.
The regulator or e-commerce players did not comment immediately.
Earlier too, Amazon and Flipkart were facing the heat of the country in regard to their business deals. In September, a probe by the Competition Commission of India reportedly found that Amazon and Flipkart have violated local competition laws by selling specific sellers on their platforms preferentially.
Meanwhile, the Central Consumer Protection Authority under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is reviewing hundreds of complaints regarding "dark patterns" and planning to crack down on those violating laws related to consumer protection regarding e-commerce companies that engage in "dark patterns." Dark patterns in online platforms have triggered controversy in India. Such fraud strategies make people do things they do not want to do. These include the process of making people purchase products or services that they may not have wanted to buy.
Recently, the Indian government issued draft guidelines to check "dark patterns" used by big online platforms. The Digital India Act is also adequately equipped to govern "dark patterns" over the internet owing to provisions on user safety. In its efforts to protect customers from false online reviews of products, the government has also issued an elaborate set of guidelines.
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