Goods worth Rs 76 lakh seized from Amazon, Flipkart warehouses in Delhi

E-commerce giants face scrutiny over non-compliant products

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has seized goods worth Rs 76 lakh from the Delhi warehouses of Amazon and Flipkart for failing to meet quality control norms. This action is part of an ongoing crackdown on products lacking the required certification marks.

Last week, similar raids were conducted at warehouses in Tamil Nadu, where officials found and confiscated uncertified products being stored, sold, and exhibited.

Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart have stated that they adhere to local regulations but have not yet commented on the latest seizures.

According to BIS, the seized goods from an Amazon subsidiary’s warehouse in Delhi included geysers and food mixers worth approximately Rs 70 lakh. These products either lacked the standard quality control mark or carried counterfeit labels. Additionally, the agency confiscated sports shoes worth around Rs 6 lakh from a Flipkart warehouse, which were set for dispatch but did not meet certification requirements.

The Indian e-commerce market, valued at around $57–$60 billion in 2023, is projected to surpass $160 billion by 2028, according to Bain & Company. However, Amazon and Flipkart have faced increasing regulatory scrutiny.

In September 2024, an antitrust probe found both companies guilty of favoring select sellers in violation of local competition laws. A previous 2021 Reuters report, based on internal Amazon documents, alleged that the company had given preferential treatment to certain sellers to bypass Indian laws—claims that Amazon has denied.

The recent warehouse raids signal heightened enforcement of product quality standards, adding to the regulatory challenges faced by the e-commerce giants in India.