The Central Government has notified Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020, under Section 94 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 to regulate and prevent unfair trade practices in e-commerce (market places and inventory led models), direct selling and to protect the interests of consumers.

These rules shall apply to all goods and services bought or sold over digital or electronic network. Some of the salient points of note are:

1. An e-commerce entity to include a foreign company; or an office, branch or agency outside India owned or controlled by a resident of India.
   
   
2. Every e-commerce entity shall establish grievance redressal mechanism, acknowledge receipt of consumer complaint within 48 hours and redress complaint with 30 days of receipt of complaint.
   
   
3. Every marketplace e-commerce entity shall require sellers to display details including the name, address, customer care number, GSTIN, PAN details, etc. The platform shall take efforts to maintain a record of sellers who have repeatedly offered goods/services previously taken down/removed. Every inventory e-commerce entity shall provide and display information related to return, refund, exchange, warranty, delivery & shipment, payment methods, fees or charges, etc.
   
   
4. Sellers shall have written contracts with e-commerce entities and shall appoint a grievance officer. Sellers shall not falsely represent themselves as a customer and post reviews. No e-commerce entity shall engage in mis-leading advertisements.
   
   
5.  Violation of these rules shall be penalized under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 with either fine or imprisonment or both.

The Rules can be accessed at

– http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/220661.pdf.

The Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Facebook to license its music repertoire for video and other social experiences across Facebook and Instagram. This will enable users to add music from IPRS’ repertoire to their videos and stories on Facebook and Instagram.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed before the High Court of Delhi seeking for constitution of an Expert Committee for looking into strengthening protection of attorney-client privilege during meetings over video conferencing. The reliefs included introduction of appropriate rules/amendments in this regard and certification of specific third-party applications/technology which are safe for conducting privileged communication. The Court remarked that the Petitioner had approached the Court without a representation to the Respondents (including the Bar Council of India). The Court, accordingly, accordingly directed the Bar Council of India to consider the PIL as a representation and decide the same.

A draft report has been submitted by a committee of experts constituted by the Central Government to deliberate and provide recommendations on various issues pertaining to its Non-Personal Data Governance Framework. The committee has invited comments on the draft report by August 13, 2020. The report discusses various aspects such as the meaning of non-personal data as well as the legal basis for establishing rights over it, the concept of anonymization of personal data, establishment of a non-personal data authority, etc.

The report can be accessed at – https://static.mygov.in/rest/s3fs-public/mygov_159453381955063671.pdf

The High Court of Bombay has ordered the extension of operation of the order previously passed by the Court on March 26, 2020 until August 31, 2020. Accordingly, all interim orders operating as of March 26 shall continue to remain in force, if not directed otherwise.

The order can be accessed at – https://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/writereaddata/latest/PDF/ltupdtbom20200715190808.pdf