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118 Consumerism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Consumerism is a pervasive force that shapes our society and influences our behavior as individuals. It revolves around the idea of acquiring and consuming goods and services in large quantities, often driven by the desire for status, identity, and satisfaction. With its profound impact on our lives, consumerism has become a popular subject of discussion and analysis. If you are tasked with writing an essay on consumerism, here are 118 topic ideas and examples to inspire and guide your writing process:

The rise of consumerism in modern society.
The history and evolution of consumerism.
The impact of consumerism on the environment.
Consumerism and its relationship with capitalism.
The role of advertising in promoting consumerism.
The psychological aspects of consumerism.
The influence of social media on consumerism.
The connection between consumerism and materialism.
Consumerism and its impact on personal relationships.
The effects of consumerism on mental health.
Consumerism and its impact on children.
The role of consumerism in shaping identity.
Consumerism and its impact on cultural values.
The influence of consumerism on fashion trends.
Consumerism and its impact on the global economy.
The ethics of consumerism.
Consumerism and its impact on education.
The relationship between consumerism and happiness.
Consumerism and its impact on social inequality.
The influence of consumerism on food choices.
Consumerism and the rise of fast fashion.
The impact of consumerism on waste generation and disposal.
The role of consumerism in the pharmaceutical industry.
Consumerism and the rise of online shopping.
The connection between consumerism and debt.
The impact of consumerism on local businesses.
Consumerism and its impact on the labor market.
The role of planned obsolescence in consumerism.
Consumerism and its impact on personal freedom.
The influence of consumerism on leisure activities.
Consumerism and its impact on body image.
The role of consumerism in the entertainment industry.
The impact of consumerism on urban development.
Consumerism and its impact on sustainable living.
The influence of consumerism on travel and tourism.
Consumerism and its impact on healthcare.
The role of consumerism in the automotive industry.
The impact of consumerism on cultural heritage.
Consumerism and its impact on social activism.
The influence of consumerism on technology adoption.
Consumerism and its impact on privacy.
The role of consumerism in the beauty industry.
The impact of consumerism on personal values.
Consumerism and its impact on globalization.
The connection between consumerism and overconsumption.
Consumerism and its impact on personal finance.
The influence of consumerism on housing choices.
Consumerism and its impact on mental well-being.
The role of consumerism in shaping political ideologies.
The impact of consumerism on the fashion industry.
Consumerism and its influence on body modification.
The relationship between consumerism and social status.
Consumerism and its impact on social media influencers.
The influence of consumerism on cultural appropriation.
Consumerism and its impact on personal values and beliefs.
The role of consumerism in the gaming industry.
The impact of consumerism on the music industry.
Consumerism and its influence on artistic expression.
The connection between consumerism and addiction.
Consumerism and its impact on privacy in the digital age.
The influence of consumerism on personal happiness.
Consumerism and its impact on food waste.
The role of consumerism in shaping political campaigns.
The impact of consumerism on public health.
Consumerism and its influence on decision-making.
The connection between fashion trends and consumerism.
Consumerism and its impact on social media platforms.
The influence of consumerism on holiday traditions.
Consumerism and its impact on personal well-being.
The role of consumerism in the film industry.
The impact of consumerism on the music streaming industry.
Consumerism and its influence on cultural assimilation.
The connection between consumerism and social conformity.
Consumerism and its impact on the fast food industry.
The influence of consumerism on dietary choices.
Consumerism and its impact on the video game industry.
The role of consumerism in shaping gender roles.
The impact of consumerism on personal relationships with nature.
Consumerism and its influence on cultural appropriation in fashion.
The connection between consumerism and advertising ethics.
Consumerism and its impact on personal well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The influence of consumerism on social media addiction.
Consumerism and its impact on mental health during economic downturns.
The role of consumerism in shaping beauty standards.
The impact of consumerism on personal debt during economic crises.
Consumerism and its influence on personal values during times of uncertainty.
The connection between consumerism and social media influencers during political campaigns.
Consumerism and its impact on personal values during times of social unrest.
The influence of consumerism on personal well-being during natural disasters.
Consumerism and its role in shaping personal values in multicultural societies.
The impact of consumerism on personal debt during college education.
Consumerism and its influence on personal well-being during retirement.
The connection between consumerism and social media influencers during environmental activism.
Consumerism and its impact on personal values during technological advancements.
The role of consumerism in shaping dietary choices during health crises.
The influence of consumerism on personal well-being during political campaigns.
Consumerism and its impact on personal debt during holiday seasons.
The connection between consumerism and social media influencers during mental health awareness campaigns.
Consumerism and its influence on personal values during cultural festivals.
The impact of consumerism on personal well-being during job insecurity.
Consumerism and its role in shaping beauty standards during body positivity movements.
The influence of consumerism on personal well-being during social isolation.
Consumerism and its impact on personal debt during housing market fluctuations.
The connection between consumerism and social media influencers during charity campaigns.
Consumerism and its influence on personal values during technological dependency.
The role of consumerism in shaping dietary choices during food scarcity.
The impact of consumerism on personal well-being during natural resource depletion.
Consumerism and its influence on personal values during political polarization.
The connection between consumerism and social media influencers during wellness trends.
Consumerism and its impact on personal debt during economic recessions.
The influence of consumerism on personal well-being during social media comparison.
Consumerism and its role in shaping beauty standards during aging populations.
The impact of consumerism on personal values during technological privacy concerns.
The connection between consumerism and social media influencers during educational campaigns.
Consumerism and its influence on personal well-being during healthcare disparities.
The role of consumerism in shaping dietary choices during climate change.
The influence of consumerism on personal well-being during social inequality.
Consumerism and its impact on personal debt during global economic crises.

These essay topics provide a wide range of perspectives on consumerism, allowing you to choose an area that aligns with your interests or concerns. Remember to conduct thorough research, provide evidence-based arguments, and present a well-structured essay to effectively convey your ideas. Good luck!

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100 Hot Consumer Behavior Essay Topics

In this article you will find a brief overview of consumer behavior research and consumer psychology examples as well as a practical guideline on how to write an essay on consumer behavior. Most importantly, this article will provide you with 100 hot consumer behavior essay topics that will make choosing a topic so much easier for you. This list is a real gem if you are looking for:

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topics for presentation
assignment topics
topics for projects

Consumer Behavior Research

Consumer behavior is social science that involves marketing, psychology, sociology, ethnography, behavioral economics, and anthropology. The concept of consumer behavior involves intentions, decisions, and actions connected with purchasing goods and services, using them, and disposal activities. In essence, any behavior associated with purchasing anything can be considered as consumer behavior.

When we investigate consumer behavior, the topics of research include, but are not limited to:

Motives of purchase
Impact of the society/social group on purchase intentions
Usage rates
Possibility of repurchase
Word of mouth
Ethnographic factors of consumer behavior
Methods of impacting and predicting consumer behavior
Consumer decision styles
Role of emotions in consumer behavior
Customer loyalty

Consumer Psychology Examples

In the market environment, customers seek to purchase goods and services to meet their needs, while sellers strive to develop marketing strategies that would be the most impactful in motivating consumers to buy. That being said, marketing strategies are often designed to make the product more appealing to customers by influencing emotions and feelings.

Consumer psychology examples include the ways in which marketing campaigns influence consumer behavior. Appealing to customers by making a marketing campaign touching, emotional, or funny, are all examples of consumer psychology.

Let us consider several examples of consumer psychology, both good and bad, to get a better understanding of how marketing manipulates feelings of customers.

Successful consumer psychology example

Procter & Gamble’s “Thank you, Mom” Campaign is emotional and strong, focusing on how mothers support their children no matter what. This campaign was tied to the 2018 Winter Olympics and promoted inclusion, diversity, and family values.

Consumer psychology failure example

One of the most notable marketing failures of the 2010s is, without a doubt, Pepsi commercial in 2017 . The ad exploited unity, freedom, and diversity as a way to communicate to every customer, depicting a carbonated soda as an element equally important as protest, democracy, and equality. An attempt to manipulate customer feelings was so obvious that the ad was taken down after a severe backlash.

How to Write an Essay on Consumer Behavior: Outline

Generally, just about any essay includes 3 major parts, namely introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion . Whichever of the hot consumer behavior essay topics you choose and whatever length your essay is, you can use the following outline to construct a logically structured essay that will engage your readers and will reflect your topic to the full.

1. Introduction

Hook – the first sentence or two in your introduction that grabs readers’ attention. Can be a quote, relevant statistical data, interesting fact about your topic, a question, or a strong statement. Hook is like a good ad campaign – it sells the rest of the essay to your readers and motivates them to continue reading. Hook also demonstrates your skills of presenting your topic of choice
Presentation of the topic – reveal what you will write about. Make sure to be clear and concise
Topic background – reveal the general perspective in which you will research specific concept or phenomenon
Thesis statement – a sentence that contains the main idea of your essay
Transitional hook – typically the last sentence in an introduction that smoothly connects the introduction with body paragraph. Refer to what you will write about in the body paragraph to bridge the introduction with the rest of the paper

2. Body paragraph – the number of body paragraphs can vary depending on essay length, while their general structure and elements are uniform

Topic sentence – reveal in the nutshell what the paragraph is about
Details about the sub-topic , such as statistical data, findings from relevant and credible sources, interim conclusions, etc.
Concluding sentence – summarize the paragraph
Transition sentence – ensure logical transition between body paragraphs. Concluding and transition sentences can be merged into one sentence.

3. Conclusion – summary of your essay. Don’t simply rewrite your main findings, but reveal them in logical sequence, demonstrating connection among facts, cause and effect relationships, and concepts. Restate your thesis statement with regard to the findings you write about in your body paragraphs.

How to Research Consumer Behavior

Here is a list of 7 unconventional sources of information about consumer behavior that will help you find out more about your chosen topic:

Customer review websites and customer reviews for different products
Conduct a survey on survey website, such as Survey Monkey
Interview your friends, family, or basically anyone you would like to
Social media pages of brands and customer comments on them
Blogs on products and brands
Newspaper articles on market trends
Your own experience – you are a customer and your opinion is a source of information that matters

Consumer Behavior Essay Do’s and Don’ts

Research your topic in various sources
Outline your essay before writing
Reconsider thesis statement after writing every body paragraph
Don’t simply paraphrase thesis statement in conclusion, but restate it with regard to information you’ve researched in body paragraph
Make introduction and conclusion clear and concise, optimal length for each is around 10% of the essay
Use citations not only to avoid plagiarism, but to demonstrate your dedication and hard work researching your topic
Write your introduction after completing the body paragraph and conclusion – this is a secure way to write an introduction that represents your paper in the best way possible because you know what the paper is about
Proofread your essay to make sure you avoid grammar mistakes
Rely solely on your opinion, opinions of your interviewees, or results of a survey if you conduct one – it is unprofessional and you will most likely miss a lot of aspects of the topic
Write lengthy intros and conclusions – your intro is supposed to intrigue and interest, while conclusion remind of major points rather than include actual research
Avoid topic sentences – these are important elements of essay structure
Ignore coordinating thesis statement after writing the paper – it can turn out to be out of touch with your body paragraph content

The topics below are designed to be versatile, interesting, topical, and truly compelling for essays, presentations, assignments, and projects.

Let’s get started!

Influence of price on consumer behavior
Price change and consumer behavior in luxury goods market
Customer luxury value perception
Mass marketing of luxury and consumer behavior
Prestige-seeking consumer behavior
Customer behavior and marketing strategy in luxury segment
Review and analysis of successful/unsuccessful examples of marketing strategies in luxury segment
Self-concept in consumer behavior
Symbolism and market behavior
Impulsive purchasing
Attachment and consumer behavior
Cross-cultural consumer behavior
Cultural dimensions and consumer behavior: the role of indulgence
Convergence and divergence in consumer behavior
Greenwashing as a marketing strategy
Consumer reaction to “green” brand claims
Current problems in consumer behavior
Consumerism as a form of consumer behavior
Risk taking in consumer behavior
Consumer value and consumer behavior
Consumer behavior trends in online shopping
Sensory marketing and consumer behavior
Consumer perception of price
Consumer perception of quality
Brand extensions and brand relatedness
Mainstream vs trendy products and consumer behavior
Personal values and consumer behavior
Word of mouth and electronic word of mouth as a factor influencing consumer behavior
Brand ambassadors and consumer behavior
Corporate social responsibility as a factor influencing consumer behavior
Brand image and consumer behavior
The role of customer trust in consumer behavior
The impact of negative online reviews on product perception and purchase intention
The role of social media peer communication in shaping consumer behavior
Is consumer behavior rational?
The role of value maximization in consumer behavior
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and consumer behavior
Impact of prior experience on purchase intention
Neuromarketing in consumer behavior
Neuromarketing and ethics
The role of aesthetic taste in consumer behavior
Customer retention methods
Effects of sexual advertising on consumer purchase intentions
The role of packaging in consumer purchase intention
Brand sustainability as a positive factor of consumer purchase intention
Product placement and its effect on consumer behavior
Innovations as a factor influencing consumer behavior
Color-emotion associations
Pink for girls, blue for boys: gender differentiation of children’s’ goods
Marketing power of emotions
Emotions and brand attitude
Measures of purchase intention
Customer satisfaction measures
Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
Customer loyalty and repurchase intentions
Brand familiarity and purchase intention
Smartphones, e-waste, and disposal activities
How fast fashion brands attract customers
Perceived quality and purchase intention
Organic food customer perception
Purchase intention and celebrity endorsements
Social media influencers and consumer behavior
Do customers care about business ethics?
Purchase intention and controversial products
Consumer animosity
Impact of the country of origin image on consumer behavior
Determinants of purchase intention
Repurchase intention in services
Customer satisfaction and repurchase intention
Consumer clothing disposal behaviors
Personal factors of consumer disposal tendencies
Masstige brands and consumer behavior
Brand advocacy development
Customer relationship management trends
Purchasing power and consumer behavior
Economic conditions and consumer behavior
Education level of consumer behavior
Consumer decision style overview
Hedonistic decision style
Brand-conscious customer choice
Social status and consumer behavior
Impact of sales associates on consumer purchase intention and behavior
Product life cycle and consumer behavior
New product adoption types
Factors that cause brand-switching
Online consumer behavior types
Guerilla marketing and consumer behavior
Concept of brand awareness and its impact on consumer behavior
Impact of the Internet on buying process
Perfectionist consumer decision style
Behavior of a healthcare customer
Consumer behavior of Generation Y
Shopping behavior of baby boomers
Generation Y vs Baby Boomer consumer behavior
Brand loyalty of Millenials
Brand awareness and social media
Generation Z consumer behavior
Future consumer trends 2020
Situational variables and consumer behavior
Methods of predicting consumer behavior

Essay on Consumer Rights

Students are often asked to write an essay on Consumer Rights in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Consumer Rights

Introduction to consumer rights.

Consumer rights are the basic rights given to every person who buys goods and services. They are important for fair trade and honesty in the market. These rights protect consumers from being cheated or treated unfairly by businesses.

Types of Consumer Rights

There are several types of consumer rights. Some of them are the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. These rights help consumers make safe and informed decisions about what they buy.

Importance of Consumer Rights

Consumer rights are important for a fair and honest market. They protect consumers from harmful products, false advertising, and unfair prices. They also ensure that consumers have a voice in the market and can make informed choices.

Consumer Rights Protection

There are laws and organizations that protect consumer rights. They make sure businesses follow the rules and treat consumers fairly. If a business breaks these rules, it can be punished. Consumers can also complain if they feel their rights have been violated.

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250 Words Essay on Consumer Rights

Understanding consumer rights.

Consumer rights are rules made by governments to protect people who buy goods and services. These rights make sure that consumers are treated fairly and not cheated by businesses.

The Importance of Consumer Rights

Consumer rights are important for several reasons. Firstly, they ensure that consumers get what they pay for. If a product or service is not as described, consumers have the right to a refund, replacement or repair. Secondly, consumer rights protect people from dangerous products. If a product is unsafe, it can be taken off the market to protect consumers.

There are several types of consumer rights. The right to safety means that products should not harm consumers. The right to be informed means that businesses should give consumers clear and truthful information about products. The right to choose means that consumers should have a choice of products at fair prices. The right to be heard means that consumers should have a say in how products are made and sold.

Protecting Your Consumer Rights

To protect your consumer rights, it’s important to know them. If you feel your rights have been violated, you can complain to the business, contact a consumer protection agency, or take legal action. By understanding and standing up for your rights, you can help ensure that businesses treat all consumers fairly.

500 Words Essay on Consumer Rights

Consumer rights are protections given to buyers of goods and services against unfair practices of sellers. They are laws and rules that make sure that consumers get fair treatment. It is important for everyone to understand these rights to protect themselves from being taken advantage of.

There are eight basic consumer rights. The first one is the right to satisfaction of basic needs. This means that everyone should have access to basic, necessary goods and services like food, clothing, and shelter.

The third right is the right to be informed. Sellers must give complete and correct information about the products they sell. This includes things like ingredients, instructions for use, and warnings about possible dangers.

The fourth right is the right to choose. Consumers should have a variety of products to pick from, and they should not be forced into buying something they do not want.

The sixth right is the right to redress. This means that if a product is not good or if it causes harm, the consumer has the right to get their money back, get the product replaced, or get compensation for any harm caused.

The seventh right is the right to consumer education. This means that consumers should be taught about their rights and responsibilities.

The last right is the right to a healthy environment. This means that the production, use, and disposal of products should not harm the world we live in.

Consumer rights are important for many reasons. They protect consumers from being cheated or treated unfairly. They also make sure that products are safe to use. Without these rights, sellers might sell dangerous or poor-quality products without any consequences.

In conclusion, consumer rights are a crucial part of our daily lives. They ensure that we, as consumers, are treated fairly and are protected from harmful products. Knowing our rights can help us make better choices and can protect us from being taken advantage of. It’s important for everyone, including school students, to understand and exercise these rights.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Essay on Consumer Rights | Consumer Rights Essay for Students and Children in English

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

Essay on Consumer Rights: A consumer is defined as someone who buys goods and services for directly using them rather than reselling them or using them or some other indirect use. Consumer protection or consumer right is the right to have clarity of information regarding a product’s quality, quantity, potency, price and purity. These rights are curated to protect consumers from unfair trade.

Consumer rights are predetermined declarations which are established by law. Consumer organisations are also made which help these consumers to exercise their right if and when treated unfairly. Consumer rights are a very special set of rules which prevent huge frauds committed by huge business corporations.

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Long and Short Essays on Consumer Rights for Students and Kids in English

We are providing students with essay samples on a long essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on the topic Consumer Rights.

Long Essay on Consumer Rights 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Consumer Rights is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Consumer protection is the rights given to a consumer for having clarity of information regarding the product that they buy. They have the right to have full information about the quality, quantity, price, standard and purity of the product. It is to be mentioned, however, that consumer rights are solely for the consumers who buy a product for their direct use and not for reselling it.

Consumer protection is considered to be falling udert e arena of “private law.” It is a way of preventing consumers as well as the state rom financial scams, financial frauds and bankrupt businesses. Countries like Australia, Brazil, United States of America and the United Kingdom, have consumer protection laws in the nation-state level. They also have specific state organisations to help their consumers.

Constitutional Laws: As many as 47 constitutions in the present day include some consumer rights to be enforced in their constitution.

Consumer Protection In India:

In India, the most important consumer rights fall under The Consumer Protection Act of 1986. According to this law, not only the individual consumers but a company, a group of consumers, an undivided Hindu family, all have the power to exercise their rights. The consumer rights mentioned in the law are-

The right to be protected from harmful and hazardous goods and services.
The right to be informed in details about the quality as well as the performance of a good.
The right to freedom of choice of goods and services.
The right to be heard in all the decision-making processes which are related to the interests of the consumers.
The right to seek redressal on the infringement of consumer rights.
The right to the completion of consumer education.

Keeping the condition of the consumers in mind, The Government of India and its Ministry of Consumer Affairs, opened a nodal organisation called the Department of Consumer Affairs to protect the consumers from frauds and unfair treatment. If there is an infringement of these rights, then a proper claim for redressal can be made in a consumer court.

The circumstances under which a complaint can be made in a consumer court:

If the goods or services purchased by the person has one or more defects.
If a trader or a service provider resort to unfair means of business.
If a trader or a service provider charges a price above what has been agreed upon under law.
Goods or services that cause a certain safety hazard to the users or the consumers.

Right to Consumer Education:

It is the right of every citizen to have an education regarding consumer protection. The education makes sure that the consumer has all the knowledge and information required regarding their rights and claims. Consumer forum is a quasi-judicial mechanism at the district, state and national level. It is a three-tier mechanism consisting of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum. It is till now one of the most successful judicial tribunal introduced by the Government.

Short Essay on Consumer Rights 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Consumer Rights is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Consumer Protection or Consumer Rights refer to the rights that a consumer is granted to have clarity of information about a product that one has bought. It is the right of the consumer to know about the quality, quantity, price, standard and purity of a product. Consumer Rights are an essential aspect of the judicial system as it can prevent elaborate financial frauds, financial scams and bankruptcy.

As many as 47 countries have included consumer protection and consumer rights as constitutional law. In India, consumer rights come under the Consumer Protection Act of 1986. There is also a three-tier quasi-judicial mechanism in India in all the district, state and national level. This tribunal is called the Consumer Forum. Among the different rights that a consumer enjoys, there are right to know full information about the product bought, right to be protected from hazardous products, right to consumer education, right to freedom of choice of goods and services and right to redressal upon the infringement of these rights.

10 Lines on Consumer Rights in English

Nearly 47 countries have it as a constitutional right.
The Consumer Protection Act came into being in 1986.
The ministry of the Government is called The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
The Department of Consumer Affairs has been made for addressing complaints.
On the infringement of any consumer rights, the consumer can complain in a consumer court.
Consumer course is of three-tier in India.
It is a quasi-judicial body.
It exists in the district-state and national level.
The district-state-national forums entertain complaints of 20 lacs, one crore and more than one crore respectively.
Consumer rights are one of the most efficient aspects of today’s judicial system.

FAQ’s on Consumer Rights Essay

Question 1. Why is consumer rights important?

Answer: Consumer Rights are important because they prevent the consumer and individual from unfair trade, financial frauds and scams.

Question 2. What are the forums called?

Answer: The Consumer Forums are called the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, State Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

Question 3. What is the Consumer Helpline Number in India?

Answer: Consumer Helpline Number is 1800114000 or 14404.

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Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Consumer Protection — Rights and Duties of Consumers

Rights and Duties of Consumers

Categories: Consumer Protection

About this sample

Words: 2592 |

13 min read

Published: Oct 11, 2018

Words: 2592 | Pages: 6 | 13 min read

Applies to all goods and services unless specifically exempted by the Union Government;
Covers all the sectors whether private, public or cooperative;
Enshrines the consumer’s rights related to safety, information, choice, representation and redress and consumer education.
The act gives consumers an additional remedy besides those which may be available to them under the provisions of other existing laws and they are free to choose the remedy.
Empower consumers seeking discontinuance of certain unfair and restrictive trade practices, defects or deficiencies in services and stopping in services or withdrawal of hazardous goods from the market.
Underweight and under measurements –not measured or weighed correctly
Substandard Quality –defective home appliances and medicines beyond expirydate
High prices—charging above the retail price
Duplicate Articles—selling fake items in the name of the original
Adulteration and Impurity—is done to get higher profits
Lack of safety Devices— the absence of inbuilt safeguards in appliances
Artificial Scarcity—hoarding and black marketing
False and Incomplete Information—misleading information on quality, durability, and safety.
Unsatisfactory after sales Service— high-cost items like electronics and cars require constant and regular service.
Rough behavior and Undue conditions—harassment in getting LPG connection or a telephone connection.
Limited Information—providing full and correct information will help in the choice
Limited Supplies—when goods and services are in short supply then price shoots up
Limited Competition.—single producer may manipulate the market in terms of price and stocks.
Low Literacy.—illiteracy leads to exploitation. Hence Consumer Awareness is essential

The rise of Consumer Awareness

Right to Safety—to protect against hazardous goods
Right to be Informed—about price, quality, purity
Right to Choose—access to a variety of goods and services at competitive prices.
Right to be Heard—consumers interest and welfare must be taken care of
Right to seek Redressal—protection against unfair trade practices and settling genuine grievances.
Right to Consumer Education.—Knowledge about goods and issues related to consumers.
Get a bill for every important purchase and also the Warranty card
Check the ISI mark or Agmark on the goods
Form consumer awareness groups
Make a complaint about genuine grievances.
Consumers must know to exercise their rights.
Legislation concerning Consumer Rights.
Public Distribution System
Standardization of Products
Legal formalities for filing a complaint

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Food Waste: An Introduction to the Issue and Questions that Remain

Food waste is a problem throughout the supply chain and across the globe that is increasingly capturing the attention of policymakers. Gustavsson et al. (2011) estimated that one-third of the food produced for consumption globally is lost or wasted. Within the U.S., Buzby et al. (2014) estimated that 31% of food available at the retail and consumer levels was wasted, which translates to a loss of $161 billion and 141 trillion calories per year (enough calories to feed ~ 193,000,000 people a daily diet of 2,000 calories for a year!) – not to mention the loss of the (scarce) resource inputs like land, water, and energy that went into food production.

How is food waste defined?

Discussions on food waste may also reference the term “food loss”; the terms sound synonymous, but there are distinctions between the two. An ERS report by Buzby et al. (2014) uses the following definitions for food loss and food waste:

“ Food loss represents the amount of edible food, postharvest, that is available for human consumption but is not consumed for any reason. It includes cooking loss and natural shrinkage; loss from mold, pests, or inadequate climate control; and plate waste.”
“ Food waste is a component of food loss and occurs when an edible item goes unconsumed, such as food discarded by retailers due to undesirable color or blemishes and plate waste discarded by consumers.”

Efforts to address food loss have been ongoing in developing countries, such as improvements in harvesting and storage technology, biological controls, etc. For more on research addressing food loss (postharvest loss), see Affognon et al. (2015) and Hodges et al. (2011). Conversely, efforts to address food waste have been more recent. The remainder of this article focuses on the more narrowly defined issue of food waste.

What is being done to reduce food waste?

The costs of food waste (economic and otherwise) have driven efforts in both the public and private sectors to reduce food waste along the supply chain. In the public sector, there are national and international initiatives ( U.S. Food Waste Challenge and SAVE FOOD Initiative , respectively) that set waste reduction goals and are designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and best practices for waste reduction across the supply chain. Further, there has been an increase in legislation related to food waste. In the U.S., legislation was introduced to clarify date labeling (“sell by”, “use by”, “best by”, etc.) on food products. In France, a new law was passed that bans supermarkets from throwing away unsold food; instead, they will be required to donate it (Chrisafis, 2016). Although less recent, the South Korean government implemented a volume-based food waste fee system in 2010 where households are forced to pay based on the weight of their waste.

In the private sector, we have also seen the formation of knowledge-sharing groups (e.g., Food Waste Reduction Alliance ). In addition, many technological solutions have been introduced that are designed to help track waste (e.g., LeanPath ), more optimally plan, shop and cook, donate leftovers, and so on (Hutcherson, 2013). Finally, there has been an increase in the selling of “ugly” fruits and vegetables (those fruits and vegetables that would not normally comply with the cosmetic standards required by retailers). The movement is credited to a grocery retailer in France (Intermarche) but has quickly expanded. Major U.S. retailers such as Walmart and Whole Foods are offering “ugly” fruits and vegetables in their produce sections. Both efforts are currently in pilot phase, but with the intention to expand (see Godoy, 2016 for more information).

Questions that remain about food waste

While many reports and food waste reduction initiatives in the public and private sectors identify households (consumers) as one of the biggest sources of food waste, there has been little research to understand how households actually make decisions on throwing out food. Further, this decision is rarely framed as an economic decision, with costs and benefits. There are most certainly cases where the decision to waste may be optimal, depending on one’s preferences, incentives, and resource constraints. For instance, an individual may prefer to throw out milk that is several days past the expiration date rather than run the risk of becoming ill. In discussing his household production model, Becker (1965) suggests that Americans should be more wasteful than people in developing countries because the opportunity cost of their time exceeds the market prices of food and other goods. Thus, it will be critical for future research to account for the different factors that play a role in the keep/waste decision to determine the tradeoffs consumers make in this process.

In addition to examining the waste decision in economic terms, it will be important to explore the heterogeneity across consumers when making these decisions. In other words, we may be able to identify that, in general, consumers will be more averse to wasting food when the cost of that food was high or when there is a replacement readily available; however, some types of people may be even more or less responsive to such factors than the average person. Research has already suggested that income may impact a household’s likelihood of wasting food (Becker, 1965; Daniel, 2016; Qi and Roe, 2016); however, other factors such as age, education, SNAP participation, etc. should also be examined. Understanding these differences may enable policymakers or advocacy groups to better tailor educational efforts to high-waste households.

A final question related to household food waste is: how do we motivate households to change their behavior? Though many ideas come to mind (e.g., education campaigns, waste taxes or waste reduction subsidies, changes in portion sizes or packaging), the answer to this question will likely depend on the household waste decision process, so it is imperative to understand this first before making policy recommendations.

Future articles on food waste will provide insight on some of my own research in this area, including preliminary results from an online survey where we attempt to learn more about the household waste decision process. Additionally, I will share information on my ongoing plate waste study in the University of Illinois dining halls.

References:

Affognon, Hippolyte, Christopher Mutungi, Pascal Sanginga, and Christian Borgemeister. 2015. “Unpacking Postharvest Losses in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Meta-Analysis.” World Development , 66:49-68.

Becker, Gary S. 1965. “A Theory on the Allocation of Time.” The Economic Journal , 75(299):493-517.

Buzby, Jean C., Hodan F. Wells, and Jeffrey Hyman. 2014. “The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States.” USDA Economic Research Service, Washington, DC, USA.

Chrisafis, Angelique. 2016. “French Law Forbids Food Waste by Supermarkets.” The Guardian , Available at http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/20/486664266/walmart-world-s-largest-grocer-is-now-selling-ugly-fruit-and-veg .

Daniel, Caitlin. 2016. “Economic Constraints on Taste Formation and the True Cost of Healthy Eating.” Social Science & Medicine , 148:34-41.

Godoy, Maria. 2016. “Wal-Mart, America’s Largest Grocer, Is Now Selling Ugly Fruit and Vegetables.” NPR The Salt , Available at http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/20/486664266/walmart-world-s-largest-grocer-is-now-selling-ugly-fruit-and-veg .

Gustavsson, Jenny, Christel Cederberg, Ulf Sonesson, Robert van Otterdijk, and Alexandre Meybeck. 2011. “Global Food Losses and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention.” Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome, Italy.

Hodges, R. J., J. C. Buzby, and B. Bennett. 2011. “Postharvest Losses and Waste in Developed and Less Developed Countries: Opportunities to Improve Resource Use.” Journal of Agricultural Science , 149:37-45.

Hutcherson, Aaron. 2013. “Waste Not, Want Not: 6 Technologies to Reduce Food Waste.” Food+Tech Connect. Available at https://foodtechconnect.com/2013/10/02/waste-not-want-not-6-technologies-to-reduce-food-waste/ .

Qi, Danyi, and Brian E. Roe. 2016. “Household Food Waste: Multivariate Regression and Principal Components Analyses of Awareness and Attitudes among U.S. Consumers.” PLoS ONE , 11(7): e0159250.

food loss , food waste , SNAP

Consumer Awareness, Consumer Rights and Responsibilities

Consumer Awareness is an act of making sure the buyer or consumer is aware of the information about products, goods, services, and consumers rights. Consumer awareness is important so that buyer can take the right decision and make the right choice. Consumers have the right to information, right to choose, right to safety. Let us learn more about Consumer rights, responsibilities and consumer awareness in detail.

Consumer Rights and Responsibilities

Consumer Rights is an insight into what rights consumer holds when it comes to seller which provide the goods. What if the goods provided to the consumer by the business is not up to the standard? Then in that case – what should a consumer do? To be precise, what rights consumer have is in the court of law to fight against the malpractices of the business firms or seller.

Browse more Topics under Consumer Protection

Intro & Importance of Consumer Protection
Consumer Protection Act
Legal Protection to Consumers
Consumer Organisations and NGOs

Consumer Rights

Right to Safety : This is the first and the most important of the Consumer Rights. They should be protected against the product that hampers their safety. The protection must be against any product which could be hazardous to their health – Mental, Physical or many of the other factors.
Right to Information : They should be informed about the product. The product packaging should list the details which should be informed to the consumer and they should not hide the same or provide false information.
Right to Choose : They should not be forced to select the product. A consumer should be convinced of the product he is about to choose and should make a decision by himself. This also means consumer should have a variety of articles to choose from. Monopolistic practices are not legal.
Right to Heard : If a consumer is dissatisfied with the product purchased then they have all the right to file a complaint against it. And the said complaint cannot go unheard, it must be addressed in an appropriate time frame.
Right to Seek Redressal : In case a product is unable to satisfy the consumer then they have the right to get the product replaced, compensate, return the amount invested in the product. We have a three-tier system of redressal according to the Consumer Protection Act 1986 .
Right to Consumer Education : Consumer has the right to know all the information and should be made well aware of the rights and responsibilities of the government. Lack of Consumer awareness is the most important problem our government must solve.

Learn more about Intro and Importance of Consumer Protection here in detail.

Responsibilities of a Consumer

The consumer has a certain responsibility to carry as an aware consumer can bring changes in the society and would help other consumers to fight the unfair practice or be aware of it.

They should be aware of their rights under the Consumer Protection Act and should practice the same in case of need.
They should be well aware of the product they are buying. Should act as a cautious consumer while purchasing the product.
If in case a product is found of anything false or not satisfactory a complaint should be filed.
The consumer should ask for a Cash Memo while making a purchase.
A customer should check for the standard marks that have been introduced for the authenticity of the quality of the product like ISI or Hallmark etc.

What Is the Meaning of Consumer Awareness?

Consumer Awareness is the process of making the consumer of goods and services aware of his rights. It involves educating a consumer about safety, information and the redressal options available to him.

As previously discussed consumer awareness is one of the most persistent problems the government faces when it comes to consumer protection. To resolve this problem the government has come up with various methods over the years. In fact, it is the main aim of the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Consumer Awareness in India

One of the most important and successful Consumer Awareness campaign in recent times has been the “ Jago Grahak Jago ” campaign. You must have certainly come across it. It is a great example of successful consumer awareness.

Learn more about Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (COPRA) here .

Solved Question for You

Question: Explain the following rights: (a) The right to safety (b)The right to consumer education.

Ans: Let us take a look at the two rights:

The right to safety : It refers to the right to be protected against products, production processes and services that endanger the physical health or well being of the consumer.
The right to consumer education: It refers to a right that protects the consumer from various large companies of the products and services they sell. It is basically about informing people and giving them the required knowledge for living in a consumer society. These rights and exercises must be followed by every consumer.

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Consumer Protection

Intro and Importance of Consumer Protection

2 responses to “Consumer Organisations and NGOs”

from -mukesh m chandiramani,7a-30,navjivan society,lamington road,mumbai-400008 i had booked the appoinment for covid-19 test for mr mukesh mohan chandiramani(age 48) and rekha mohan chandiramani(age 73) with KlinicApp Network Lab – Krsnaa Diagnostics dated 30-07-2020.but the government of maharashtra did not allow KlinicApp Network Lab – Krsnaa Diagnostics to enter navjivan society,lamington road,mumbai-400008.the government of maharashtra blocked my testing by KlinicApp Network Lab – Krsnaa Diagnostics,inspite of repeated calls to 022-23835004 bmc d ward office i was not allowed to be tested for covid-19.i have sent emails to hon chief mininster of maharashtra and hon prime minister of india dated 30-07-2020 and 31-07-2020 but till date i have not got any reply. i would like the government of india to pay me compensation of 5 lacs for blocking my covid -19 test dated 30-07-2020

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Strengthening Consumer Rights: The Advent of Consumer Protection Act, 2019

SEBI and Corporate Laws, Vol. 156(2), 2019, at p. 7

9 Pages Posted: 13 Jul 2020 Last revised: 16 Oct 2020

Vipan Kumar

Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law

Adya Sharma

Affiliation not provided to ssrn.

Date Written: September 1, 2019

No economy can flourish without the rights of the consumer being protected. A consumer is an indispensable actor of any economy as he is the person who buys or hires goods or services from the seller and in turn boosts employment in the country. Thus, protecting the rights of the consumer is important because in the present times the demands and expectations of the consumer have changed due to globalization and growing awareness. However, the availability of a large number of goods and services sometimes proves to be harmful to the consumer as not all sellers and service providers are genuine. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was established to address the grievances of the consumer and to protect their interests. It was a laudable step at that point of time and amended from time to time. However, the three-decade-old legislation failed to keep pace with the developments in the market and digital technology in the country. For example, the right to proceed against a person who had violated the rights of the consumer was not given in the Act, and the State and District Consumer Redressal Forums had to be approached, which only compensated consumers for the loss they had incurred. There was neither any collection of data nor any inquiry regarding injuries or deaths on account of defective products or services. In short, there was no regulatory body to control or keep a check on violation of the rights of consumers. Now, a new phase in Consumer Rights in India has begun with the Parliament passing the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and repealing the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 making the Consumer more powerful than before. The main highlight of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is that it establishes a Central Consumer Protection Authority which acts as a regulatory body to “promote, protect, enforce consumer rights as a class.” A clear shift from Caveat emptor (let the buyer be aware) to Caveat venditor (let the seller be aware) can be seen in the new provisions as the unfair trade practices and fraud done by the seller will now be penalized. The latest Act also makes provisions for punishment regarding unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements and many more changes which keep the rights of the consumer up to date with the contemporary changes in the market. This article deals with the major highlights of the concepts under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. A humble attempt has been made to discuss and evaluate certain changes which have been made under this Act in comparison to its old counterpart.

Keywords: Consumer Protection Act

JEL Classification: K2

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Vipan Kumar (Contact Author)

Rajiv gandhi national university of law ( email ).

Bhadson Road Sidhuwal Patiala, Punjab 147006 India +91-93160-11531 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.rgnul.ac.in

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E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend

Original Paper
Published: 09 July 2021
Volume 180 , pages 581–604, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

Neelam Chawla ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2161-1102 1 &
Basanta Kumar ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3339-7481 2

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Given the rapid growth and emerging trend of e-commerce have changed consumer preferences to buy online, this study analyzes the current Indian legal framework that protects online consumers ’ interests. A thorough analysis of the two newly enacted laws, i.e., the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and literature review support analysis of 290 online consumers answering the research questions and achieving research objectives. The significant findings are that a secure and reliable system is essential for e-business firms to work successfully; cash on delivery is the priority option for online shopping; website information and effective customer care services build a customer's trust. The new regulations are arguably strong enough to protect and safeguard online consumers' rights and boost India’s e-commerce growth. Besides factors such as s ecurity, privacy, warranty, customer service, and website information, laws governing consumer rights protection in e-commerce influence customers’ trust. Growing e-commerce looks promising with a robust legal framework and consumer protection measures. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge on e-commerce and consumer rights protection by elucidating the key factors that affect customer trust and loyalty and offering an informative perspective on e-consumer protection in the Indian context with broader implications.

Consumer Protection in e-Commerce and Online Services

Service Issues Affecting Consumer Behaviour Towards E-commerce Purchases in India

Protection of Consumer Rights in E-Commerce in India

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Study Background

The study context, which discusses two key aspects, namely the rationale for consumer protection in e-commerce and its growth, is presented hereunder:

The Rationale for Consumer Protection in E-commerce

Consumer protection is a burning issue in e-commerce throughout the globe. E-Commerce refers to a mechanism that mediates transactions to sell goods and services through electronic exchange. E-commerce increases productivity and widens choice through cost savings, competitiveness and a better production process organisation Footnote 1 (Vancauteren et al., 2011 ). According to the guidelines-1999 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), e-commerce is online business activities-both communications, including advertising and marketing, and transactions comprising ordering, invoicing and payments (OECD, 2000 ). OCED-1999 guidelines recognised, among others, three essential dimensions of consumer protection in e-commerce. All consumers need to have access to e-commerce. Second, to build consumer trust/confidence in e-commerce, the continued development of transparent and effective consumer protection mechanisms is required to check fraudulent, misleading, and unfair practices online. Third, all stakeholders-government, businesses, consumers, and their representatives- must pay close attention to creating effective redress systems. These guidelines are primarily for cross-border transactions (OECD, 2000 ).

Considering the technological advances, internet penetration, massive use of smartphones and social media penetration led e-commerce growth, the OECD revised its 1999 recommendations for consumer protection in 2016. The 2016-guidelines aim to address the growing challenges of e-consumers’ protection by stimulating innovation and competition, including non-monetary transactions, digital content products, consumers-to-consumers (C2C) transactions, mobile devices, privacy and security risks, payment protection and product safety. Furthermore, it emphasises the importance of consumer protection authorities in ensuring their ability to protect e-commerce consumers and cooperate in cross-border matters (OECD, 2016 ). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in its notes-2017, also recognises similar consumer protection challenges in e-commerce. The notes look into policy measures covering relevant laws and their enforcement, consumer education, fair business practices and international cooperation to build consumer trust (UNCTAD, 2017 ).

E-commerce takes either the domestic (intra-border) route or cross-border (International) transactions. Invariably, six e-commerce models, i.e. Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Business-to-Business (B2B), Consumer-to-Business (C2B), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), Business-to-Administration (B2A) and Consumer-to-Administration (C2A) operate across countries (UNESAP and ADB, 2019 ; Kumar & Chandrasekar, 2016 ). Irrespective of the model, the consumer is the King in the marketplace and needs to protect his interest. However, the focus of this paper is the major e-commerce activities covering B2B and B2C.

The OECD and UNCTAD are two global consumer protection agencies that promote healthy and competitive international trade. Founded in 1960, Consumer International Footnote 2 (CI) is a group of around 250 consumer organisations in over 100 countries representing and defending consumer rights in international policy forums and the global marketplace. The other leading international agencies promoting healthy competition in national and international trade are European Consumer Cooperation Network, ECC-Net (European Consumer Center Network), APEC Electronic Consumer Directing Group (APECSG), Iberoamerikanische Forum der Konsumer Protection Agenturen (FIAGC), International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Agencies (Durovic, 2020 ).

ICPEN, in the new form, started functioning in 2002 and is now a global membership organisation of consumer protection authorities from 64 countries, including India joining in 2019 and six observing authorities (COMESA, EU, GPEN, FIAGC, OECD and UNCTAD). While it addresses coordination and cooperation on consumer protection enforcement issues, disseminates information on consumer protection trends and shares best practices on consumer protection laws, it does not regulate financial services or product safety. Through econsumer.gov Footnote 3 enduring initiative, ICPEN, in association with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), redresses international online fraud. Footnote 4 Econsumer.gov, a collaboration of consumer protection agencies from 41 countries around the world, investigates the following types of international online fraud:

Online shopping/internet services/computer equipment

Credit and debit

Telemarketing & spam

Jobs & making money

Imposters scam: family, friend, government, business or romance

Lottery or sweepstake or prize scams

Travel & vacations

Phones/mobile devices & phone services

Something else

Online criminals target personal and financial information. Online trading issues involve scammers targeting customers who buy/sell/trade online. Table 1 on online cross-border complaints of fraud reported by econsumer.gov reveals that international scams are rising. Total cross-border fraud during 2020 (till 30 June) was 33,968 with a reported loss of US$91.95 million as against 40,432 cases with a loss of US$ 151.3 million and 14,797 complaints with the loss of US$40.83 million 5 years back. Among others, these complaints included online shopping fraud, misrepresented products, products that did not arrive, and refund issues. Figure 1 shows that the United States ranked first among the ten countries where consumers lodged online fraud complaints based on consumer and business locations. India was the third country next to France for online fraud reporting in consumer locations, while it was the fifth nation for company location-based reporting. Besides the USA and India, Poland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Spain, and Mexico reported many consumer complaints. Companies in China, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Spain, Canada, Poland and Turkey received the most complaints. The trend is a serious global concern, with a magnitude of reported loss of above 60%.

Source: Data compiled from https://public.tableau.com/profile/federal.trade.commission#!/vizhome/eConsumer/Infographic , Accessed 7 October 2020

Online shopping-top consumer locations and company locations.

The international scenario and views on consumer protection in e-commerce provide impetus to discuss consumer protection in e-business in a regional context-India. The reason for this is that India has become a leading country for online consumer fraud, putting a spotlight on electronic governance systems-which may have an impact on India's ease of doing business ranking. However, to check fraud and ensure consumer protection in e-commerce, the government has replaced the earlier Consumer Protection Act, 1986, with the new Act-2019 and E-Commerce Rule-2020 is in place now.

E-commerce Growth

E-commerce has been booming since the advent of the worldwide web (internet) in 1991, but its root is traced back to the Berlin Blockade for ordering and airlifting goods via telex between 24 June 1948 and 12 May 1949. Since then, new technological developments, improvements in internet connectivity, and widespread consumer and business adoption, e-commerce has helped countless companies grow. The first e-commerce transaction took place with the Boston Computer Exchange that launched its first e-commerce platform way back in 1982 (Azamat et al., 2011 ; Boateng et al., 2008 ). E-commerce growth potential is directly associated with internet penetration (Nielsen, 2018 ). The increase in the worldwide use of mobile devices/smartphones has primarily led to the growth of e-commerce. With mobile devices, individuals are more versatile and passive in buying and selling over the internet (Harrisson et al., 2017 ; Išoraitė & Miniotienė, 2018 ; Milan et al., ( 2020 ); Nielsen, 2018 ; Singh, 2019 ; UNCTAD, 2019a , 2019b ). The growth of the millennial digital-savvy workforce, mobile ubiquity and continuous optimisation of e-commerce technology is pressing the hand and speed of the historically slow-moving B2B market. The nearly US$1 Billion B2B e-commerce industry is about to hit the perfect storm that is driving the growth of B2C businesses (Harrisson et al., 2017 ). Now, e-commerce has reshaped the global retail market (Nielsen, 2019 ). The observation is that e-commerce is vibrant and an ever-expanding business model; its future is even more competitive than ever, with the increasing purchasing power of global buyers, the proliferation of social media users, and the increasingly advancing infrastructure and technology (McKinsey Global Institute, 2019 ; UNCTAD, 2019a , 2019b ).

The analysis of the growth trend in e-commerce, especially since 2015, explains that online consumers continue to place a premium on both flexibility and scope of shopping online. With the convenience of buying and returning items locally, online retailers will increase their footprint (Harrisson et al., 2017 ). Today, e-commerce is growing across countries with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% between 2014 and 2020; it is likely to grow at 25% between 2020 and 2025. Further analysis of e-commerce business reveals that internet penetration will be nearly 60% of the population in 2020, and Smartphone penetration has reached almost 42%. Among the users, 31% are in the age group of 25–34 years old, followed by 24% among the 35–44 years bracket and 22% in 18–24 years. Such a vast infrastructure and networking have ensured over 70% of the global e-commerce activities in the Asia–Pacific region. While China alone accounts for US$740 billion, the USA accounts for over US$$560 billion (Kerick, 2019 ). A review of global shoppers making online purchases (Fig. 2 ) shows that consumers look beyond their borders-cross-border purchases in all regions. While 90% of consumers visited an online retail site by July 2020, 74% purchased a product online, and 52% used a mobile device.

Source: Data compiled from https://datareportal.com/global-dig ital-overview#: ~ :text = There%20are%205.15%20billion%20unique,of%202.4%20percent%20per%20 year and , Accessed 12 October 2020

Global e-commerce activities and overseas online purchase.

The e-commerce uprising in Asia and the Pacific presents vast economic potential. The region holds the largest share of the B2C e-commerce market (UNCTAD, 2017 ). The size of e-commerce relative to the gross domestic product was 4.5% in the region by 2015. E-commerce enables small and medium-sized enterprises to reach global markets and compete on an international scale. It has improved economic efficiency and created many new jobs in developing economies and least developed countries, offering them a chance to narrow development gaps and increase inclusiveness—whether demographic, economic, geographic, cultural, or linguistic. It also helps narrow the rural–urban divide.

Nevertheless, Asia’s e-commerce market remains highly heterogeneous. In terms of e-commerce readiness—based on the UNCTAD e-commerce index 2017, the Republic of Korea ranks fifth globally (score 95.5) while Afghanistan, with 17 points, ranks 132 (UNCTAD, 2017 ). According to a joint study (2018) by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia is the fastest-growing region in the global e-commerce marketplace. The region accounted for the largest share of the world’s business-to-consumer e-commerce market (UNESCAP and ADB, 2019). World Retail Congress (2019) brought out the Global E-Commerce Market Ranking 2019 assessing the top 30 ranking e-commerce markets on various parameters-USA, UK, China, Japan and Germany were the first top countries. India figured at 15 with a CAGR of 19.8% between 2018 and 2022. The report suggests that companies need to enhance every aspect of online buying, focusing on localised payment mode and duty-free return. Footnote 5 The observation of this trend implies online consumers’ safety and security.

Figure 3 explains that global cross-border e-commerce (B2C) shopping is growing significantly and is estimated to cross US$1 Trillion in 2020. Adobe Digital Economic Index Survey-2020 Footnote 6 in March 2020 reported that a remarkable fact to note is about steadily accelerated growth in global e-commerce because of COVID-19. While virus protection-related goods increased by 807%, toilet paper spiked by 231%. Online consumers worldwide prefer the eWallet payment system. The survey also revealed an exciting constellation that COVID-19 is further pushing overall online inflation down.

Source: Authors’ compilation from https://www.invespcro.com/blog/cross-border-shopping/ , Accessed on 15 October 2020

Global cross-border e-commerce (B2C) market. *Estimated to cross US$ 1 Trillion in 2020.

According to UNCTD’s B2C E-Commerce Index 2019 survey measuring an economy’s preparedness to support online shopping, India ranks 73rd with 57 index values, seven times better than the 80th rank index report 2018 (UNCTAD, 2019a , 2019b ). The E-commerce industry has emerged as a front-runner in the Indian economy with an internet penetration rate of about 50% now, nearly 37% of smartphone internet users, launching the 4G network, internet content in the local language, and increasing consumer wealth. Massive infrastructure and policy support propelled the e-commerce industry to reach US$ 64 billion in 2020, up by 39% from 2017 and will touch US$ 200 by 2026 with a CAGR of 21%. Footnote 7 Now, India envisions a five trillion dollar economy Footnote 8 by 2024. It would be difficult with the present growth rate, but not impossible, pushing for robust e-governance and a digitally empowered society. The proliferation of smartphones, growing internet access and booming digital payments and policy reforms are accelerating the growth of the e-commerce sector vis-a-vis the economy.

Analysis of different studies on the growth of e-commerce in India shows that while retail spending has grown by a CAGR of 22.52% during 2015–2020, online buyers have climbed by a CAGR of 35.44% during the same period (Fig. 4 ). The government’s Digital India drive beginning 1 July 2015-surge using mobile wallets like Paytm, Ola Money, Mobiwik, BHIM etc., and the declaration of demonetisation on 9 November 2016 appears to be the prime reasons for such a vast growth in the country’s e-commerce industry. The Times of India (2020 October 12), a daily leading Indian newspaper, reported that India's increase in digital payments was at a CAGR of 55.1% from March 2016 to March 2020, jumping from US$ 73,90 million to 470.40, reflecting the country's positive policy environment and preparedness for the digital economy. The government's policy objective is to promote a safe, secure, sound and efficient payment system; hence, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the national financial and fiscal regulating authority, attempts to ensure security and increase customer trust in digital payments (RBI, 2020 ).

Source: Data compiled from https://www.ibef.org/news/vision-of-a-new-india-US$-5-trillion-economy , http://www.ficci.in/ficci-in-news-page.asp?nid=19630 , https://www.pwc.in/research-insights/2018/propelling-india-towards-global-leadership-in-e-commerce.html , https://www.forrester.com/data/forecastview/reports# , Accessed 12 October 2020

E-Commerce growth in India during 2015–2020.

The massive growth of e-commerce in countries worldwide, especially in India, has prompted an examination of the legal structure regulating online consumer protection.

Literature Review and Research Gap

Theoretical framework.

Generally speaking, customers, as treated inferior to their contracting partners, need protection (Daniel, 2005 ). Therefore, due to low bargaining power, it is agreed that their interests need to be secured. The ‘inequality of negotiating power’ theory emphasises the consumer's economically weaker status than suppliers (Haupt, 2003 ; Liyang, 2019 ; Porter, 1979 ). The ‘inequality in bargaining power’ principle emphasises the customer's economically inferior position to suppliers (Haupt, 2003 ). The ‘exploitation theory’ also supports a similar view to the ‘weaker party’ argument. According to this theory, for two reasons, consumers need protection: first, consumers have little choice but to buy and contract on the terms set by increasingly large and powerful businesses; second, companies can manipulate significant discrepancies in knowledge and complexity in their favour (Cockshott & Dieterich, 2011 ). However, a researcher such as Ruhl ( 2011 ) believed that this conventional theoretical claim about defining the customer as the weaker party is no longer valid in modern times. The logic was that the exploitation theory did not take into account competition between firms. Through competition from other businesses, any negotiating power that companies have vis-a-vis clients is minimal. The study, therefore, considers that the ‘economic theory’ is the suitable theoretical rationale for consumer protection today.

The principle of ‘economic philosophy’ focuses primarily on promoting economic productivity and preserving wealth as a benefit (Siciliani et al., 2019 ). As such, the contract law had to change a great deal to deal with modern-age consumer transactions where there is no delay between agreement and outcomes (McCoubrey & White, 1999 ). Thus, the ‘economic theory’ justifies the flow of goods and services through electronic transactions since online markets' versatility and rewards are greater than those of face-to-face transactions. The further argument suggests that a robust consumer protection framework can provide an impetus for the growth of reliability and trust in electronic commerce. The ‘incentive theory’ works based on that argument to describe consumer protection in electronic transactions (McCoubrey & White, 1999 ).

Online shopping needs greater trust than purchasing offline (Nielsen, 2018 ). From the viewpoint of ‘behavioural economics, trust (faith/confidence) has long been considered a trigger for buyer–seller transactions that can provide high standards of fulfilling trade relationships for customers (Pavlou, 2003 ). Pavlou ( 2003 ) supports the logical reasoning of Lee and Turban ( 2001 ) that the role of trust is of fundamental importance in adequately capturing e-commerce customer behaviour. The study by O'Hara ( 2005 ) also suggests a relationship between law and trust (belief/faith), referred to as ‘safety net evaluation’, suggesting that law may play a role in building trust between two parties. However, with cross-border transactions, the constraint of establishing adequate online trust increases, especially if one of the parties to the transaction comes from another jurisdiction with a high incidence of counterfeits or a weak rule of law (Loannis et al., 2019 ). Thus, the law promotes the parties' ability to enter into a contractual obligation to the extent that it works to reduce a contractual relationship's insecurity. The present research uses the idea of trust (faith/belief/confidence) as another theoretical context in line with ‘behavioural economics’.

As a focal point in e-commerce, trust refers to a party's ability to be vulnerable to another party's actions; the trustor, with its involvement in networking, sees trust in the form of risk-taking activity (Mayer et al., 1995 ; Helge et al., 2020 ). Lack of confidence could result in weak contracts, expensive legal protections, sales loss and business failure. Therefore, trust plays a crucial role in serving customers transcend the perceived risk of doing business online and in helping them become susceptible, actual or imaginary, to those inherent e-business risks. While mutual benefit is usually the reason behind a dealing/transaction, trust is the insurance or chance that the customer can receive that profit (Cazier, 2007 ). The level of trust can be low or high. Low risk-taking behaviour leads to lower trustor engagement, whereas high risk-taking participation leads to higher trustor engagement (Helge et al., 2020 ). The theory of trust propounded by (Mayer et al., 1995 ) suggests that trust formation depends on three components, viz. ability, benevolence, and integrity (ABI model). From the analysis of the previous studies (Mayer et al., 1995 ; Cazier, 2007 ; Helge et al., 2020 ), the following dimensions of the ABI model emerge:

Dimensions	Description
Ability	Competence and characteristics of vendors in influencing and approving a particular area or domain-level service to the consumer
Ability	Elements: technological skills and solutions to provide the core service, as well as privacy, security, data protection, and preparedness
Benevolence	Concerns caring, and it's the muse for client loyalty
Benevolence	Elements: attention, empathy, belief and acceptance
Integrity	Compliance with laws and transparent consistency and links to attitude and behaviour of sellers in running their business
Integrity	Elements: equality, satisfaction, allegiance, fairness, and reliability

Precisely, ability, benevolence and integrity have a direct influence on the trust of e-commerce customers.

Gaining the trust of consumers and developing a relationship has become more challenging for e-businesses. The primary reasons are weak online security, lack of effectiveness of the electronic payment system, lack of effective marketing program, delay in delivery, low quality of goods and services, and ineffective return policy (Kamari & Kamari, 2012 ; Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009 ). These weaknesses adversely impact business operations profoundly later. Among the challenges that are the reasons for the distrust of customers and downsides of e-commerce is that the online payment mechanism is widely insecure. The lack of trust in electronic payment is the one that impacts negatively on the e-commerce industry, and this issue is still prevalent (Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009 ). The revelation of a recent study (Orendorff, 2019 ) and survey results Footnote 9 on trust-building, particularly about the method of payment, preferred language and data protection, is fascinating. The mode of payment is another matter of trust-building. Today’s customers wish to shop in their local currency seamlessly. In an online shoppers’ survey of 30,000 respondents in 2019, about 92% of customers preferred to purchase in their local currency, and 33% abandoned a buy if pricing was listed in US$ only (Orendorff, 2019 ). Airbnb, an online accommodation booking e-business that began operations in 2009, has expanded and spread its wings globally as of September 2020-over 220 countries and 100 k + cities serving 7 + billion customers (guests) with local currency payment options. Footnote 10

Common Sense Advisory Survey Footnote 11 -Nov. 2019-Feb. 2020 with 8709 online shoppers (B2C) in 29 countries, reported that 75% of them preferred to purchase products if the information was in their native language. About 60% confirmed that they rarely/never bought from an English-only website because they can’t read. Similarly, its survey of 956 business people (B2B) moved in a similar direction. Whether it is B2B or B2C customers, they wanted to go beyond Google translator-this is about language being a front-line issue making or breaking global sales. Leading Indian e-commerce companies like Amazon Footnote 12 and Flipkart Footnote 13 have started capturing the subsequent 100 million users by providing text and voice-based consumer support in vernacular languages. These observations suggest trust in information that the customers can rely upon for a successful transaction.

Data protection is probably the most severe risk of e-commerce. The marketplaces witness so many violations that it often seems that everyone gets hacked, which makes it a real challenge to guarantee that your store is safe and secure. For e-commerce firms, preserving the data is a considerable expense; it points a finger to maintaining the safety and security of the e-commerce consumers’ data privacy in compliance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) across countries. Footnote 14

PwC’s Global Consumer Insight Survey 2020 reports that while customers’ buying habits would become more volatile post-COVID 19, consumers’ experience requires safety, accessibility, and digital engagement would be robust and diversified. Footnote 15 The report reveals that the COVID-19 outbreak pushed the popularity of mobile shopping. Online grocery shopping (including phone use) has increased by nearly 63% post-COVID than before social distancing execution and is likely to increase to 86% until its removal. Knowing the speed of market change will place companies in a position to handle the disruption-74% of the work is from home, at least for the time being. Again, the trend applies to consumers’ and businesses’ confidence/trust-building. The safety and security of customers or consumer protection are of paramount importance.

Given the rationale above, the doctrine of low bargaining power, exploitation theory and the economic approach provides the theoretical justification for consumer protection. Economic theory also justifies electronic transactions and e-commerce operations as instruments for optimising income. The trust theory based on behavioural economic conception also builds up the relationship between the law and customer trust and thus increases confidence in the online market. These premises form the basis for this research.

Need and Instruments for Online Consumer Protection

The law of the land guides people and the living society. Prevailing rules and regulations, when followed, provide peace of mind and security in all spheres, including business activities (Bolton et al., 2004 ). Previous research by Young & Wilkinson ( 1989 ) suggested that those who have more legally strict contracts face more legal problems in contrast to trust-related issues (Young & Wilkinson, 1989 ). Time has changed; people going for online transactions go with the legal framework and feel safe and secured (Bolton et al., 2004 ). An online agreement is a valid contract. Most UNCTAD member countries, including India, have adopted various laws concerning e-governance/e-business/e-society, such as e-transaction laws, consumer protection laws, cyber-crime laws, and data privacy and protection laws. The trend indicates that the law is vital in establishing trust in online transactions.

A review of literature on e-commerce and consumer protection suggests that over the years, consumer protection in e-commerce has received significant attention, particularly from the regulatory authorities-government agencies, trade associations and other associated actors (Belwal et al., 2020 ; Cortés, 2010 ; Dhanya, 2015 ; Emma et al., 2017 ; Ibidapo-Obe, 2011 ; ITU, 2018 ; Jaipuriar et al., 2020 ; Rothchild, 1999 ; Saif, 2018 ). The OECD ( 2016 ), UNCTAD ( 2017 ), and World Economic Forum ( 2019 ) guidelines on e-commerce have facilitated countries to have regulations/laws to provide online customers with data privacy, safe transaction and build trust. Table 2 explains policy guidelines on consumer protection based on a summary of online consumer challenges and possible remedies at different purchases stages.

Research Issue and Objective

The research gap identification involves reviewing the literature on various aspects of e-commerce and consumer rights protection issues spanning two decades. An objective review of 36 highly rated (Scopus/Web Services/ABDC Ranking or the like) e-commerce related publications from over 100 articles published in the last 20 years (2000–2020) suggests that the vast majority of earlier studies in this field have been conceptual/theoretical and generic. Regarding the legal framework of e-commerce and consumers’ rights protection, six current papers exclusively in the Indian context were available for analysis and review. The observations are that while the focus on consumer privacy and rights protection concerns is too general, the legal framework's scrutiny has limited its scope. A review of selected studies on trust and consumer rights protection in e-commerce, as shown in Table 3 , reveals that application aspects, particularly legal issues, are lacking. Indian experience in e-commerce consumer rights protection through jurisprudence is nascent. Review studies show the research of a combination of management and law-related analysis in e-commerce and consumer rights protection is lacking. This scenario showed a gap in exploring a more comprehensive research opportunity in the Indian context.

While e-commerce and electronic transactions have evolved as a global trend, it is noteworthy that Indian customers are still reluctant to place complete confidence and trust in commercial online transactions. Compared to conventional offline customers, online customers face greater risk in cyberspace because they negotiate with unknown vendors and suppliers. Footnote 16 The common issues Footnote 17 related to e-commerce are data privacy and security, product quality, uncertain delivery, no/low scope of replacement, the jurisdiction of filing complaints, and inconceivable terms and conditions (Lahiri, 2018 ). “Country of origin” of the product is a significant issue in e-commerce, particularly in cross-border transactions (Bhattacharya et al., 2020 ). The inadequacy of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and other associated laws has surged the insecurity and lack of trust among online customers. The significance of digital payments pursued by the Government of India's essential demonetisation policy-2016 has pushed for online transaction security and consumer protection in e-commerce activities. Therefore, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 Footnote 18 replaced the Consumer Protection Act 1986 and became effective with effect from 20 July 2020, Footnote 19 while on 7 July 2020, the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 Footnote 20 came into force to address the e-commerce challenges. Nevertheless, it was evident that to attract additional investment and to engage with the global market, India, as an emerging country, had to gain the confidence of e-consumers.

These two legislations primarily govern domestic e-commerce businesses. Therefore, the research focuses on these two legal infrastructure strands-new laws enacted during 2019 and 2020 and discusses their implications for online consumer security to increase customers' interest and trust in India's electronic transactions. Like the ABI model , the study also examines the factors influencing e-commerce customers' confidence in the present research context.

Methodology

The research initially depended on the rigorous review of the consumer protection guidelines released from time to time by various bodies, such as the OECD and UNCATD, accompanied by an analysis of the Indian consumer protection legal structure. The Indian Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 were the review and analysis subjects. The study used e-commerce driver data collected from secondary sources-published material; the survey reported e-commerce growth and trends and consumer protection and conducted an online survey of 432 online consumers during August and September 2020.

Analysing the arguments of Zikmund ( 2000 ), Bryman ( 2004 ), Saumure & Given ( 2008 ), Bill et al., ( 2010 ) and Bornstein et al. ( 2013 ) about the representative of convenience sampling and bias, we consider it is similar to that of the population, and there is no harm with due care. Regarding inherent bias in convenience sampling, data collection from different sources with different respondents’ inclusion provides more data variability and considerably reduces prejudice (Sousa et al., 2004 ; Edgar and Manz, 2017 ). Therefore, the respondents included in the research were students, professors, advocates, doctors, professionals, and homemakers, avoiding excluding family, relatives and friends to ensure bias-free. Their contact details sources were various channels, including public institution websites, social networking sites, and the authors’ email box. Assuming that more respondents feel fun filling out online questionnaires and providing truthful answers (Chen & Barnes, 2007 ; Saunders et al., 2007 ), the study used an online survey. Furthermore, because people in the digital age are more computer/smartphone savvy, they are more likely to follow a similar trend. Besides, such a technique was convenient during the COVID-19 pandemic condition because of its timeliness, inexpensive methods, ease of research, low cost (no support for this research), readily available, and fewer rules to follow. The respondents' contact details sources were various channels, including public institution websites, social networking sites, and the authors' email box.

The study used a structured questionnaire comprising seven questions with sub-questions except the 7th one being open-ended, consuming about 8–10 min, designed based on the insights gained from responding to customer surveys of different e-commerce companies last year. Pretesting the questionnaire with 17 responses from the target group supported modifying the final questionnaire partially. The first four questions were background questions-gender, age, respondent's attitude towards internet purchasing. Question number five with sub-questions, being the focused question, provided the answer to some trust-building factors found in the literature review. Following previous research (McKnight et al., 2002 ; Corbit et al., 2003 ; Pavlou, 2003 ) tested the Likert-scale, this question's solicited response relied on a five-point Likert-rating scale (1 = Not important at all, 2 = Less important, 3 = Somewhat important, 4 = Important, 5 = Very important). The query six asked was about the consumer protection issues in e-commerce/online transaction-scam/fraud and grievance settlement. The final question seven was open-ended for any remark the respondent wanted to make. The questionnaire was reliable on a reasonable basis with greater internal consistency on overall internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.829) at a 1% level of significance. The Zoho Survey technique was used to solicit required information. The response rate was 76% (327) of the total emails sent (432). The retained responses were 290, i.e. 88.69% of the replies received, completed in all respects and satisfying the research requirement. The research applied statistical instruments like percentage, weighted mean and multiple regression analysis using SPSS-26 for analysis and interpretation.

Figure 5 highlights the research framework and process.

Research framework and process

Deficiency in Act, 1986 and Key Feature of the New Act Governing E-Commerce Consumer Protection

The rapid development of e-commerce has led to new delivery systems for goods and services and has provided new opportunities for consumers. Simultaneously, this has also exposed the consumer vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business. The old Act, 1986, has severe limitations regarding its applicability and adjudication processes in consumer rights protection in e-commerce. The new Act, 2020 brings fundamental changes regarding its scope of application, penalty and governance; and envisages CCPA and vests regulating and controlling powers. Table 4 explains the comparative picture between the old Act, 1986 and the new Act, 2019.

The Act, 2019 applies to buying or selling goods or services over the digital or electronic network, including digital products [s.2 (16)] and to a person who provides technologies enabling a product seller to engage in advertising/selling goods/services to a consumer. The Act also covers online market places or online auction sites [s.2 (17)].

Necessary definition/explanation connected to e-commerce provided by the Act are:

Consumer: Meaning

If a person buys any goods and hires or avails any service online through electronic means, the person would be a consumer of the Act [Explanation b to s.2 (7)].

Product Seller: Electronic Service Providers

The electronic service providers are the product sellers under the Act and have the same duties, responsibilities, and liabilities as a product seller [s.2 (37)].

Unfair Trade Practice: Disclosing Personal Information

Unfair trade practice under the Act [s.2 (47) (ix)] refers to electronic service providers disclosing to another person any personal information given in confidence by the consumer.

Authorities: Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)

The Act, 2019 provides, in addition to the existing three-tier grievance redress structure, the establishment of the Central Consumer Protection Authority [CCPA] [s.10 & 18] to provide regulatory, investigative or adjudicatory services to protect consumers’ rights. The CCPA has the powers to regulate/inquire/investigate into consumer rights violations and/unfair trade practice suo motu or on a complaint received from an aggrieved consumer or on a directive from the government. The specific actions it can take include:

Execute inquiries into infringements of customer rights and initiate lawsuits.

Order for the recall of dangerous/hazardous/unsafe products and services.

Order the suspension of unethical commercial practises and false ads.

Impose fines on suppliers or endorsers or publishers of false advertising.

The power of CCPA is categorical regarding dangerous/hazardous/unsafe goods and false/misleading advertisements. The CCPA has the authority to impose a fine ranging from Rs 100 k to Rs 5 million and/imprisonment up to life term for the violators depending on the type of offences committed by them (Table 5 ).

Redress Mechanism

The provisions laid down in Sect. 28 through Sect. 73 deal with various aspects of the consumer dispute redress system. The new Act has changed the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum terminology to the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. The pecuniary jurisdiction of filling complaints in the three-tier consumer courts at the District, State and National level has increased (Table 5 ). For better understanding, Fig. 6 shows a diagrammatic picture of the judicial system of dispute settlement.

Grievance redress mechanism

The Act, 2019 provides a dispute settlement mechanism through the mediation process in case of compromise at the acceptance point of the complaint or some future date on mutual consent (Sec 37). A mediation cell would operate in each city, state, national commission, and regional bench to expedite redress. Section 74 through 81 of the Act lays down the detailed procedure. Section 81(1) maintains that no appeal lies against the order passed by Mediation, implying that the redress process at the initial stage would be speedy, impacting both the consumers and service providers.

Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020

The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, notified under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 on 23 July 2020, aims to prevent unfair trade practices and protect consumers' interests and rights in e-commerce.

Applicability (Rule 2)

The Rules apply to:

Both products and services acquired or sold through automated or electronic networks;

All models of e-commerce retail;

All the e-commerce entities, whether they have inventory or market place model. The inventory-based model includes an inventory of goods and services owned by an e-commerce entity and directly sold to consumers [Rule 3(1) f]. In the marketplace model, an e-commerce entity has an information infrastructure platform on a digital and electronic network that facilitates the consumer and the seller. [Rule 3(1)g];

All aspects of unfair trading practise in all models of e-commerce; and

An e-commerce entity is offering goods or services to consumers in India but not established in India.

General Duties of E-commerce Entities (Rule 4)

The duties of e-commerce entities are:

An e-commerce entity must be a company incorporated under the Companies Act.

Entities must appoint a point of contact to ensure compliance with the Act.

They have to establish an adequate grievance redress mechanism; they would appoint a grievance officer for this purpose and display his name, contact details, and designation of their platform. He would acknowledge the complaint's receipt within 48 h and resolve the complaint within a month from receipt of the complaint.

If they are offering imported goods, the importers’ names and details from whom the imported goods are purchased, and the sellers’ names are to be mentioned on the platform.

They cannot impose cancellation charges on consumers unless they bear similar costs.

They have to affect all payments towards accepted refund requests of the consumers within a reasonable period.

They cannot manipulate the goods' prices to gain unreasonable profit by imposing unjustified costs and discriminating against the same class of consumers.

Liabilities of Marketplace E-commerce Entities (Rule 5)

The liabilities of marketplace e-commerce entities include the following:

The marketplace e-commerce entity would require sellers to ensure that information about goods on their platform is accurate and corresponds with the appearance, nature, quality, purpose of goods.

They would display the following information prominently to its users at the appropriate place on its platform:

Details about the sellers offering goods-principal geographic address of its headquarters and all branches and name and details of its website for effective dispute resolution.

Separate ticket/docket/complaint number for each complaint lodged through which the user can monitor the status of the complaint.

Information about return/refund/exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, payment modes and dispute/grievance redress mechanism.

Information on the methods of payment available, the protection of such forms of payment, any fees or charges payable by users.

They would make reasonable efforts to maintain a record of relevant information allowing for the identification of all sellers who have repeatedly offered goods that were previously removed under the Copyright Act/Trademarks Act/Information Technology Act.

Sellers’ Duties on the Marketplace (Rule 6)

The duties of sellers on the market encompass:

The seller would not adopt any unfair trade practice while offering goods.

He should not falsely represent himself as a consumer and post-product review or misrepresent any products' essence or features.

He could not refuse to take back goods purchased or to refund consideration of goods or services that were defective/deficient/spurious.

He would have a prior written contract with the e-commerce entity to undertake sale.

He would appoint a grievance officer for consumer grievance redressal.

He would ensure that the advertisements for the marketing of goods or services are consistent with the actual characteristics, access and usage conditions of goods.

He will provide the e-commerce company with its legal name, the primary geographic address of its headquarters and all subsidiaries/branches, the name and details of the website, e-mail address, customer contact details such as faxes, landlines and mobile numbers, etc.

Duties and Liabilities of Inventory E-commerce Entities (Rule 7)

As in the inventory-based model, inventory of goods and services is owned and sold directly to consumers by e-commerce entities, so inventory e-commerce entities have the same liabilities as marketplace e-commerce entities and the same duties as marketplace sellers.

The Act 2019 has several provisions for regulating e-commerce transactions with safety and trust. Since the Act is new, it would be premature to comment on its operational aspects and effectiveness. In a recent judgement in Consumer Complaint No 883 of 2020 ( M/s Pyaridevi Chabiraj Steels Pvt. Ltd vs National Insurance Company Ltd , the NCDRC Footnote 21 has proved the Act's operational effectiveness by deciding the maintainability of a claim's jurisdiction based on the new Act's provisions. However, it is inevitable that "beware buyer" will be replaced by "beware seller/manufacturer"; the consumer will be the real king. The Rules 2020 strike a balance between the responsibilities of e-commerce business owners and on-the-platform vendors. Contravention, if any, of the new regulation/rules would invite the provisions of the Act 2019. The observation is that limited liability partnerships are missing from the e-commerce entities. However, with the Act and Rules' operational experience, the judiciary or legislature will address this issue sooner or later.

Nevertheless, the Rules 2020 provide a robust legal framework to build consumers' trust in e-commerce transactions and protect their rights and interests, thereby proving the notion, "consumer is the king". The COVID-19 impact has pushed the government to adopt and encourage online compliant filling procedures through the National Consumer Helpline. Using various APPs is likely to expedite the adjudication process and benefit the aggrieved consumer and build trust in the governance system.

Reading the Rules, 2020, with the Act, 2019, the observation is that by making smartphones the primary target of the new legislation, the Act, 2019 is hailed as an all-inclusive regulatory regime that would raise customer interest investment in e-commerce. To safeguard consumers' rights in all modern-day retail commerce models, the Act, 2019 attempts to turn the jurisprudence pervading consumer protectionism from a caveat emptor to a caveat seller. In addition, the Act formally incorporated e-commerce within its limits and entered the realm of B2C e-commerce. One crucial takeaway benefit for consumers is simplifying the complaint filing process, enabling consumers to file complaints online and redress grievances.

E-commerce has become a gift to all customers in the COVID-19 pandemic's aftermath. The E-Commerce Rules, 2020 follow the stringent consumer protection regime under the new Act, 2019. In the raging pandemic, the timing of the E-Commerce Rules, 2020 is beneficial considering the current limitations on customers' freedom of travel and increased reliance on e-commerce. The grievances redress mechanism as provided in the Rules, 2020 is indubitably a calibrated step ensuring neutrality in the e-commerce market place, greater transparency, stringent penalties and a striking balance between the commitments of e-commerce firms and vendors in the marketplace. The mandatory provisions of appointing a consumer grievance redress officer and a nodal contact person or an alternative senior appointed official (resident in India) with contact details, acknowledging consumer complaints within 48 h of receipt with a ticket number, and resolving complaints within 1 month of receipt are unquestionably beneficial to consumers. Although each e-commerce company has its refund policy, all refund claims must have a timely settlement. However, anxiety abounds as daily online fraud and unethical trading practices have made consumers fearful of exposing themselves to unscrupulous vendors and service providers. Moreover, the regulations' effective enforcement would dissuade unethical retailers and service providers, thereby building consumer trust, which time will see.

Practical Contributions

The practical contributions of the paper emerge from survey findings. Concerning the primary survey, the male–female ratio is nearly 1:1, with an average age of 36 years in the age range of 20–65. As regards profession, 67% were working professionals, and 22% were students. While all of the respondents were computer/tablet/mobile-savvy, 96% had at least a five-time online shopping experience during the last 7 months between January–July 2020. The desktop with 61% response is still the preferred device for online shopping. The pricing with cash on delivery, shipping convenience, and quality reviews determined online shopping factors. About 57% of them agreed that COVID-19 impacted their online purchase habits and pushed for online transactions even though they feared insecurity about online shopping. The primary concerns were low-quality products at a high price, a refund for defective products, and a delay in settlement of wrong/excess payments. The top five leading e-commerce platforms reported were Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba, Myntra, and IndiaMart. Netmeds was also a leading e-commerce business platform in the pharmaceutical sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, JioMart was very popular for home-delivery food products, groceries and vegetables in the metro locality. The customer feedback system was found robust on Amazon.

The respondents' trust in online shopping reveals that a secure and reliable system was essential for 93% of the respondents. For nearly the same proportion, information about how e-business firms work provided security solutions was a priority factor. Choosing a payment option, 76% of the respondents prioritised “cash on delivery-online transfer at the doorstep. Regarding the privacy of personal information shared by online shoppers, 52% said that they cared about this aspect. Factors like warranty and guarantee (67%) and customer service (69%) were important factors of trust-building with the e-entities. Information on the websites (easy navigation/user friendly and reviews) was either important or very important, with 77% of the respondents’ confidence building to buy online. Information about the product features and its manufacturer/supplier was essential to 86% of the respondents for trust-building on the product and the supplier (manufacture) and e-commerce entity. Along with the ABI model discussed above, the presumption is that security, privacy, warranty/guarantee, customer service, and website information factors positively influence e-commerce customers' trust.

Multiple regression analysis suggests that as the P = value of every independent variable is below 0.05% level of significance, the independent variables security, privacy, warranty, customer service, and website information are all significant. Alternatively, the overall P value of 0.032 with R 2 0.82 supports the presumption that security, privacy, warranty/guarantee, customer service, website information factors have a combined influence on e-commerce customers' trust.

Given this backdrop, Table 6 summarises the micro findings on respondents' online shopping behaviour, their trust and safety aspects, and understanding of the provisions of the new Act, 2019 and Rules, 2020. The higher mean value for a sub-factor implies higher importance attached to the factor by the respondents. P value at a 5% level of significance explains an individual element's contribution to trust-building behaviour for online buying.

Managerial Insights

The first observation from the data analysis is that, comparatively, the younger generation is prone to online shopping; it goes along with Xiaodong and Min ( 2020 ). Secondly, the respondents of all age groups have online buying experience even in a pandemic situation forced by COVID-19, compromising their safety and security concerns. The third observation is that factors like “cash on the delivery option (COD)”, adequate information on the e-commerce entity corporate website, and effective grievance/complaint redress mechanism are the three crucial factors that build consumers’ trust in e-commerce transactions. The reason probably is that this Act and Rules are new and significant dispute (s) could yet be reported seeking invoking the relevant provisions of the Act and Rules in an appropriate legal forum.

Further, the logical observation of the COD option being a perceived influential factor in trust-building emanates from the fact that protection and security are the essential elements that make customers hesitant toward utilizing other e-payment options. The studies by Mekovec and Hutinski ( 2012 ), Maqableh ( 2015 ) and Ponte et al.( 2015 ); have similar views. However, post-demonetization (2016), India is growing with more digital payments. In this context, we value Harvard researchers Bandi et al. ( 2017 ) contention that customers who switch to digital payments maintain their purchasing recurrence but spend more and are less likely to restore their purchases. The firms in emerging markets may appreciate gains from customer interest, notwithstanding operational increases from payment digitalization. The coherent perception about the impact of website information on trust-building is in line with the findings of Brian et al. ( 2019 ) that the online information source creates a spill-over effect on satisfaction and trust toward the retailer. The implication of the need for an effective grievance redress mechanism is that trust-building would be a tricky proposition if the company cannot ensure dedicated and tailored customer service and support. Kamari and Kamari ( 2012 ) and Mangiaracina and Perego ( 2009 ) had comparative perspectives likewise.

The final observation is that the level of trust required to engage in online shopping/transaction varies among the respondents depending on their trust perception level. The younger generation, less than 35 years old, is more risk-taking when it comes to pre-purchase online payment, but women over 45 years old are a little hesitant and prefer to do their online shopping with payment at the time of placing an order. This is ostensibly because the younger generation is more tuned to network connectivity via smartphone/tablet, and they perceive online transactions as less dangerous. The present research findings on the influence of security, privacy, warranty/guarantee, customer service, and website information on e-commerce customers' confidence-building support the earlier discussed ABI model proposition (Mayer et al., 1995 ; Cazier, 2007 ; Helge et al., 2020 ). The R 2 -value of 0.82 implies that there are other factors beyond what is studied. The other probable factor (s) that might have influenced trust is the new Act and Rules' effectiveness in protecting online consumers' interests. The new regulations need a couple of years (at least 2 years) of operational experience for proper assessment. The Act 2019 appears robust to protect consumer rights and interests of e-commerce customers with specific regulations (i.e. Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020) in force, helping the country's economic growth.

The study variably supports Nehf ( 2007 ) view that consumers make decisions about distributing their data in exchange for different benefits like, e.g., information on web sites and access to databases. Trust, credibility, privacy issues, security concerns, the nature of the information on the website, and the e-commerce firm's reputation directly influence consumers' internet trust (Kim et al., 2008 ). Trust is the focal point of online consumers' decision-making; the observation endorses Larose and Rifon ( 2007 ) creation of privacy alerts as part of consumer privacy self-regulation initiatives and the use of a social cognitive model to consider consumer privacy behaviours. Besides, data privacy and trust breaches adversely affect the firm's market value (Tripathi & Mukhopadhyay, 2020 ) also hold good in the present context. Figure 7 demonstrates a diagrammatic model of trust of the consumer on e-commerce transactions leading to his decision-making.

Model for consumers’ trust on e-commerce transactions

Limitations

Every research has more or less some limitations; this one has too. The main impediment was the non-availability of adequate literature defining the impact assessment of the legal framework of consumer protection measures in e-commerce. The probable reasoning is that the Acts/Laws governing e-commerce and online consumer rights protection under consideration are new; ethical dispute resolution and judicial interventions have only recently begun. Sample size limitation is also a hindering factor in the generalisation of the findings. The observations and managerial insights are likely to change with a few more years of implementation experience of the Acts.

Conclusions, Implications and Future Research

Conclusions.

Lack of trust in goods and their suppliers/manufacturers was one of the primary reasons for people not buying online. The widespread internet penetration and the growing use of computer/tablets/smartphones have pushed e-commerce growth across countries, including India. The rapid e-commerce development has brought about new distribution methods. It has provided new opportunities for consumers, forcing consumers vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business. Further, the government's measures to protect consumer rights, particularly online consumers, are inadequate. Hence, the government enacted the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and made them effective from July 2020. The new Act and Rules have less than 6 months of operational experience, implying premature comment on its effectiveness in providing safety and security to online consumers. However, online consumers' positive responses suggest that people gain confidence in online shopping with safety and security. Because consumer rights protection is paramount in the growth of e-commerce, the new regulations strengthen the grievance redress mechanism of online consumers, ensuring their trust-building ability, safety, and security. The "Consumer is the King with power" now. The new reform, i.e., enactment of the two laws, aids in doing business too. Some legal complications may arise with more operational experience in the future. Still, with judiciary intervention and directives, the online consumer's safety and security will pave the growth of e-commerce in India.

Implications

Some stakeholders have apprehension about the new Act and Rules' effectiveness because of the slow judiciary process, inadequate infrastructure support, and corrupt practices. The findings provide some practical implications for consumer activists, policymakers, and research communities to explore how to strengthen trust-building among online consumers. Regarding theoretical implications, the research improves the scientific community's understanding of the existing body of knowledge about online trust and e-consumer protection. The article further contributes to the body of literature on e-commerce and consumer protection, understanding the crucial factors impacting customer trust and loyalty and provides an insightful perspective on e-consumer protection in the Indian context on the eve of the new legislation enacted in 2019–2020.

Future Research

Given the presumption that e-commerce and trust are areas of constant change, trust in e-commerce will change, and it will be more challenging to integrate e-commerce into people's lives. The scope for further research to test the effectiveness of the Act, 2019, and Rule, 2020 in redressing e-commerce consumers' grievances and protecting their rights is wider only after a couple of years of operational experience. The government's policy drive for accelerating online transactions also poses challenges considering the importance of trust-building and consumer rights protection in e-commerce. Future research would shed more light on these issues.

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Chawla, N., Kumar, B. E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend. J Bus Ethics 180 , 581–604 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04884-3

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Consumer Protection: Does It Work Essay

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Consumer protection has always been a special domain for numerous agencies and non-profit organisations. These organisations and agencies provide consumers with legal and information support, as they are building their relationships with sellers and suppliers. However, any violations of consumer laws and rights can easily result in criminal charges. This is why a police department can and should be actively involved in consumer protection.

The police department often receives consumer complaints, and many of these complaints are valid and demand thorough criminal investigation.

It would be fair to say that the police department is in a better position to investigate such cases than consumer protection agencies and non-profit organisations providing legal support. At times, the boundary between administrative and criminal law violations is extremely blurred, and only a law enforcement professional can help determine the scope of the issue, its gravity, consequences and potential solutions.

One of the most common consumer protection cases involving police is that of identity theft. At times, consumers make purchases from unreliable suppliers, who use their credit card information for fraudulent purposes. In this situation, filing a complaint to the local police department is the first step to resolving this criminal issue. The police will have to examine the customer’s credit card report and identify fraudulent inaccuracies and the criminal’s identity (herself).

Very often, consumers receive fraudulent messages about awards and lottery prizes, especially by phone. At the same time, they are asked to make a purchase or donation, in order to get their prize. This is a sophisticated scheme of fraud, which crosses the boundary of administrative and consumer protection law. Apparently, only the police department can help protect the rights of the consumers, who have been defrauded of their possessions in this way.

The police department may also get involved in cases, when trade solicitations become a huge pressure for the potential customer. A reputable business owner will never insist that the customer makes an instant purchase decision. In case of threats, the local police department will react immediately, because consumer rights are violated, and the consumer’s life and health may be put under risk. Certainly, if consumer rights violations lead to injuries or death, they become a matter of the local police’s concern.

For instance, some police departments assume a responsibility for checking and monitoring non-licensed chimney contractors. Overall, any consumer rights violations, trade violations and deceptive practices, false pricing and advertising, as well as consumer frauds that contain the signs of crime are to be investigated by the local police department. This is also the case of consumer extortion.

Consumer extortion has become quite common, and thousands of customers suffer from the loss of their property as a result of deceptive business practices.

More often than not, it is the local police department that receives extortion complaints from consumers. The local police department can get involved in an extortion case, when it has the features of a crime, including felony. Recently, many moving companies have fallen into an extortion disgrace, and some business owners were even arrested for extortion and unauthorised used of the movable.

Unfortunately, many cases of consumer rights violations end up as a civil matter; for this reason, business owners are not afraid of extorting their customers for a certain sum of money. Simultaneously, for an attorney and police professionals who know their job, detecting the signs of crime in consumer extortion is not difficult, and the police department can interpret such actions as felony.

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International Journal of Legal Science & Innovation

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Consumer Protection in the Era of E-Commerce: Issues and Challenges

Aishwarya pandey.

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Assistant Professor at Amity Law School, Amity University, Lucknow, India

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Today consumer law is facing various issues and challenges as a result of the rapid development of e-commerce and globalised trade. The growth of borderless marketing and technology has grown over the years. There is a wide choice for online shopping for both manufacturers and consumers. These multinational companies and other enterprises which are engaged in e-commerce attract a large number of consumers all over the world. The problem is that many people who go online shopping become victims because of false or misleading advertisements, defective products, fake deliveries of products, unsafe products, payment issues, security and privacy issues, unilateral contracts etc. However, there are national laws to deal with such an issue, but somehow it fails to protect victimised consumers because of poor implementation of laws due to jurisdictional issues. The theme of this paper is to examine whether the current national laws are sufficient to deal with commercial transactions that affect consumers in today’s era. The paper will identify the issues and problems of electronic contracts. It will do a comparative study in legislations of other jurisdictions to provide suggestions as to how and why existing laws governing electronic contracts are required to be reformed to meet the challenges faced by today’s population while dealing with online transactions. There is a high time to take action at a national and international forum.

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International Journal of Legal Science and Innovation, Volume 4, Issue 1, Page 632 - 640

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CONSUMER AWARENESS

In the latest trend of Marketing, the buyer is the soul of all its operation and functioning. The market gets insightful, and in some cases, the purchaser needs to experience its brunt. In this manner, buyer assurance is a demonstration of furnishing shoppers with complete data about the services, their rights, and merchandise.

Consumer awareness is vital as they put their time and cash into promotional exercises, and they reserve an option to straightforward data.

Misdirecting commercials, risky or unsafe items, cheating and unweighing, and different acts of neglect are performed by corrupt business entities. Consumer awareness is a demonstration of saving buyers from such wrongdoings.

Meaning of Consumer Awareness:

Consumer Awareness is a demonstration of ensuring the purchaser or buyer knows about the data and information about items, products, administrations, and buyers’ privileges. Consumer awareness is significant with the goal that purchasers can settle on the best choice and settle on the ideal decision. Shoppers reserve the privilege to data or information, the option to pick, right to wellbeing.

The Prerequisite for Customer Protection:

The shopper or the end consumer is the main component in business. No business can make do without purchasers as their fulfilment is the fundamental reason for any business activity.
Business isn’t just with regards to money-related advantages yet additionally updating society to a superior variant by keeping its welfare as a goal.
The Constitution has given us the Consumer Protection act 1986 to shield the customers from any promoting misbehaviours.
Consumer protection rights advance a solid aggressive market that upholds financial development. It wards off pernicious exchange practices and deceitful entrepreneurs from harming reasonable or fair trade or exchange.
Shoppers are an essential piece of a market structure. It is vital to secure their privileges and rights to have a reasonable or fair market structure.

What are Consumer Rights?

The Consumer Protection Act 1986 was sanctioned by the Parliament of India in 1986 to safeguard the interests of consumers in India. According to our economy, the perfect measure of demand with consistent and dependable supply can aid the development of the economy. Henceforth, to shield the purchasers from any kind of abuse or exploitation, this act was presented.

Types of Consumer Rights:

Right to information:.

The buyer has an option to get data about the quality, amount, strength, standard, and cost of the products or services. The buyer ought to legitimately ask for getting all the data about the product or service prior to settling on a decision or a choice. This will empower him to make very much educated and thoughtful choices, and furthermore, keep himself from succumbing to high-pressure selling methods. The right to data is utilised to protect shoppers from tricky promotions, deluding marks and bundling, excessive costs, and so on.

Right to Choose:

This right gives admittance to all the assortment of products and services and cutthroat costs. In a monopolistic market, the products and services ought to be of the best quality and cost.

The dealer ought not to utilise forceful methods to see the items, and buyers ought to reserve the privilege to all the assortment of choices, substitutions, and alternatives. This right requires free competition in the market. The customer ought to have a free decision in picking a product from the market.

Right to be Heard:

The other rights are pointless in the event that there could be no appropriate power to pay attention to client complaints. Assuming a purchaser is disappointed with the service or a product, then, at that point, one has the option to document a grievance against it, and it must be tended to inside a set time period. For example, assuming that a shopper purchases an electronic item and it begins breaking down, a customer has all privileges to make a fitting move by returning or supplanting it.

Right to Seek Redressal:

This right gives power to the buyers to settle any cases, complaints, and claims against dealers for their out-of-line exchange practices and double-dealing or exploitation. The purchaser has the privilege to review in case the nature of the item is compromised. Buyers need to document an objection under the Consumer Protection Act.

Right to Customer Education:

A purchaser should know about his freedoms and obligations given by the authorities with respect to advertising and marketing practices. This is a vital right as this sets out the establishment for reasonable exchange or trade practices as a customer knows about his freedoms or rights. The customer has all the positions and authority to acquire information about his privileges and rights as a purchaser.

Right to Safety:

This is a fundamental right to be ensured against the advertising of such products and services, which are perilous to life and property. Utilisation or consumption of products and services which are not up to standard can effectively affect the shopper’s wellbeing and security. To secure the shoppers’ interest, they reserve an option to get top calibre and dependable merchandise. For example, household products like LPG cylinders, if not fixed as expected, can cause massive harm to life and property; stale food products can hurt purchasers’ wellbeing; low-quality beauty care products can cause comparative damages.

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E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend

Neelam chawla.

1 Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, 110027 India

Basanta Kumar

2 Academic, Research and Legal Consultant, C-202/Satyam Tower, Bomikhal, Bhubaneswar, 751010 India

Study Background

The study context, which discusses two key aspects, namely the rationale for consumer protection in e-commerce and its growth, is presented hereunder:

The Rationale for Consumer Protection in E-commerce

Consumer protection is a burning issue in e-commerce throughout the globe. E-Commerce refers to a mechanism that mediates transactions to sell goods and services through electronic exchange. E-commerce increases productivity and widens choice through cost savings, competitiveness and a better production process organisation 1 (Vancauteren et al., 2011 ). According to the guidelines-1999 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), e-commerce is online business activities-both communications, including advertising and marketing, and transactions comprising ordering, invoicing and payments (OECD, 2000 ). OCED-1999 guidelines recognised, among others, three essential dimensions of consumer protection in e-commerce. All consumers need to have access to e-commerce. Second, to build consumer trust/confidence in e-commerce, the continued development of transparent and effective consumer protection mechanisms is required to check fraudulent, misleading, and unfair practices online. Third, all stakeholders-government, businesses, consumers, and their representatives- must pay close attention to creating effective redress systems. These guidelines are primarily for cross-border transactions (OECD, 2000 ).

The OECD and UNCTAD are two global consumer protection agencies that promote healthy and competitive international trade. Founded in 1960, Consumer International 2 (CI) is a group of around 250 consumer organisations in over 100 countries representing and defending consumer rights in international policy forums and the global marketplace. The other leading international agencies promoting healthy competition in national and international trade are European Consumer Cooperation Network, ECC-Net (European Consumer Center Network), APEC Electronic Consumer Directing Group (APECSG), Iberoamerikanische Forum der Konsumer Protection Agenturen (FIAGC), International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Agencies (Durovic, 2020 ).

ICPEN, in the new form, started functioning in 2002 and is now a global membership organisation of consumer protection authorities from 64 countries, including India joining in 2019 and six observing authorities (COMESA, EU, GPEN, FIAGC, OECD and UNCTAD). While it addresses coordination and cooperation on consumer protection enforcement issues, disseminates information on consumer protection trends and shares best practices on consumer protection laws, it does not regulate financial services or product safety. Through econsumer.gov 3 enduring initiative, ICPEN, in association with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), redresses international online fraud. 4 Econsumer.gov, a collaboration of consumer protection agencies from 41 countries around the world, investigates the following types of international online fraud:

Online shopping/internet services/computer equipment
Credit and debit
Telemarketing & spam
Jobs & making money
Imposters scam: family, friend, government, business or romance
Lottery or sweepstake or prize scams
Travel & vacations
Phones/mobile devices & phone services
Something else

Online criminals target personal and financial information. Online trading issues involve scammers targeting customers who buy/sell/trade online. Table Table1 1 on online cross-border complaints of fraud reported by econsumer.gov reveals that international scams are rising. Total cross-border fraud during 2020 (till 30 June) was 33,968 with a reported loss of US$91.95 million as against 40,432 cases with a loss of US$ 151.3 million and 14,797 complaints with the loss of US$40.83 million 5 years back. Among others, these complaints included online shopping fraud, misrepresented products, products that did not arrive, and refund issues. Figure 1 shows that the United States ranked first among the ten countries where consumers lodged online fraud complaints based on consumer and business locations. India was the third country next to France for online fraud reporting in consumer locations, while it was the fifth nation for company location-based reporting. Besides the USA and India, Poland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Spain, and Mexico reported many consumer complaints. Companies in China, the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, Spain, Canada, Poland and Turkey received the most complaints. The trend is a serious global concern, with a magnitude of reported loss of above 60%.

International online fraud

Year	Total reports	Total loss (US$ Million)	Reported loss (%)
2020 (Till 30 June)	33,968	91.95	77
2019	40,432	151.3	72
2018	29,984	115.4	78
2017	20,226	74.88	75
2016	14,292	93.72	72
2015	14,797	40.83	67

Source: Data compiled from https://public.tableau.com/profile/federal.trade.commission#!/vizhome/eConsumer/Infographic and https://www.statista.com/outlook/243/100/ecommerce/worldwide , Accessed 17 October 2020

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Object name is 10551_2021_4884_Fig1_HTML.jpg

Online shopping-top consumer locations and company locations.

Source: Data compiled from https://public.tableau.com/profile/federal.trade.commission#!/vizhome/eConsumer/Infographic , Accessed 7 October 2020

E-commerce Growth

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Object name is 10551_2021_4884_Fig2_HTML.jpg

Global e-commerce activities and overseas online purchase.

Source: Data compiled from https://datareportal.com/global-dig ital-overview#: ~ :text = There%20are%205.15%20billion%20unique,of%202.4%20percent%20per%20 year and , Accessed 12 October 2020

Nevertheless, Asia’s e-commerce market remains highly heterogeneous. In terms of e-commerce readiness—based on the UNCTAD e-commerce index 2017, the Republic of Korea ranks fifth globally (score 95.5) while Afghanistan, with 17 points, ranks 132 (UNCTAD, 2017 ). According to a joint study (2018) by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia is the fastest-growing region in the global e-commerce marketplace. The region accounted for the largest share of the world’s business-to-consumer e-commerce market (UNESCAP and ADB, 2019). World Retail Congress (2019) brought out the Global E-Commerce Market Ranking 2019 assessing the top 30 ranking e-commerce markets on various parameters-USA, UK, China, Japan and Germany were the first top countries. India figured at 15 with a CAGR of 19.8% between 2018 and 2022. The report suggests that companies need to enhance every aspect of online buying, focusing on localised payment mode and duty-free return. 5 The observation of this trend implies online consumers’ safety and security.

Figure 3 explains that global cross-border e-commerce (B2C) shopping is growing significantly and is estimated to cross US$1 Trillion in 2020. Adobe Digital Economic Index Survey-2020 6 in March 2020 reported that a remarkable fact to note is about steadily accelerated growth in global e-commerce because of COVID-19. While virus protection-related goods increased by 807%, toilet paper spiked by 231%. Online consumers worldwide prefer the eWallet payment system. The survey also revealed an exciting constellation that COVID-19 is further pushing overall online inflation down.

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Object name is 10551_2021_4884_Fig3_HTML.jpg

Global cross-border e-commerce (B2C) market. *Estimated to cross US$ 1 Trillion in 2020.

Source: Authors’ compilation from https://www.invespcro.com/blog/cross-border-shopping/ , Accessed on 15 October 2020

According to UNCTD’s B2C E-Commerce Index 2019 survey measuring an economy’s preparedness to support online shopping, India ranks 73rd with 57 index values, seven times better than the 80th rank index report 2018 (UNCTAD, 2019a , 2019b ). The E-commerce industry has emerged as a front-runner in the Indian economy with an internet penetration rate of about 50% now, nearly 37% of smartphone internet users, launching the 4G network, internet content in the local language, and increasing consumer wealth. Massive infrastructure and policy support propelled the e-commerce industry to reach US$ 64 billion in 2020, up by 39% from 2017 and will touch US$ 200 by 2026 with a CAGR of 21%. 7 Now, India envisions a five trillion dollar economy 8 by 2024. It would be difficult with the present growth rate, but not impossible, pushing for robust e-governance and a digitally empowered society. The proliferation of smartphones, growing internet access and booming digital payments and policy reforms are accelerating the growth of the e-commerce sector vis-a-vis the economy.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 10551_2021_4884_Fig4_HTML.jpg

E-Commerce growth in India during 2015–2020.

The massive growth of e-commerce in countries worldwide, especially in India, has prompted an examination of the legal structure regulating online consumer protection.

Literature Review and Research Gap

Theoretical framework.

Dimensions	Description
Ability	Competence and characteristics of vendors in influencing and approving a particular area or domain-level service to the consumer
Ability	Elements: technological skills and solutions to provide the core service, as well as privacy, security, data protection, and preparedness
Benevolence	Concerns caring, and it's the muse for client loyalty
Benevolence	Elements: attention, empathy, belief and acceptance
Integrity	Compliance with laws and transparent consistency and links to attitude and behaviour of sellers in running their business
Integrity	Elements: equality, satisfaction, allegiance, fairness, and reliability

Precisely, ability, benevolence and integrity have a direct influence on the trust of e-commerce customers.

Gaining the trust of consumers and developing a relationship has become more challenging for e-businesses. The primary reasons are weak online security, lack of effectiveness of the electronic payment system, lack of effective marketing program, delay in delivery, low quality of goods and services, and ineffective return policy (Kamari & Kamari, 2012 ; Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009 ). These weaknesses adversely impact business operations profoundly later. Among the challenges that are the reasons for the distrust of customers and downsides of e-commerce is that the online payment mechanism is widely insecure. The lack of trust in electronic payment is the one that impacts negatively on the e-commerce industry, and this issue is still prevalent (Mangiaracina & Perego, 2009 ). The revelation of a recent study (Orendorff, 2019 ) and survey results 9 on trust-building, particularly about the method of payment, preferred language and data protection, is fascinating. The mode of payment is another matter of trust-building. Today’s customers wish to shop in their local currency seamlessly. In an online shoppers’ survey of 30,000 respondents in 2019, about 92% of customers preferred to purchase in their local currency, and 33% abandoned a buy if pricing was listed in US$ only (Orendorff, 2019 ). Airbnb, an online accommodation booking e-business that began operations in 2009, has expanded and spread its wings globally as of September 2020-over 220 countries and 100 k + cities serving 7 + billion customers (guests) with local currency payment options. 10

Common Sense Advisory Survey 11 -Nov. 2019-Feb. 2020 with 8709 online shoppers (B2C) in 29 countries, reported that 75% of them preferred to purchase products if the information was in their native language. About 60% confirmed that they rarely/never bought from an English-only website because they can’t read. Similarly, its survey of 956 business people (B2B) moved in a similar direction. Whether it is B2B or B2C customers, they wanted to go beyond Google translator-this is about language being a front-line issue making or breaking global sales. Leading Indian e-commerce companies like Amazon 12 and Flipkart 13 have started capturing the subsequent 100 million users by providing text and voice-based consumer support in vernacular languages. These observations suggest trust in information that the customers can rely upon for a successful transaction.

PwC’s Global Consumer Insight Survey 2020 reports that while customers’ buying habits would become more volatile post-COVID 19, consumers’ experience requires safety, accessibility, and digital engagement would be robust and diversified. 15 The report reveals that the COVID-19 outbreak pushed the popularity of mobile shopping. Online grocery shopping (including phone use) has increased by nearly 63% post-COVID than before social distancing execution and is likely to increase to 86% until its removal. Knowing the speed of market change will place companies in a position to handle the disruption-74% of the work is from home, at least for the time being. Again, the trend applies to consumers’ and businesses’ confidence/trust-building. The safety and security of customers or consumer protection are of paramount importance.

Need and Instruments for Online Consumer Protection

A review of literature on e-commerce and consumer protection suggests that over the years, consumer protection in e-commerce has received significant attention, particularly from the regulatory authorities-government agencies, trade associations and other associated actors (Belwal et al., 2020 ; Cortés, 2010 ; Dhanya, 2015 ; Emma et al., 2017 ; Ibidapo-Obe, 2011 ; ITU, 2018 ; Jaipuriar et al., 2020 ; Rothchild, 1999 ; Saif, 2018 ). The OECD ( 2016 ), UNCTAD ( 2017 ), and World Economic Forum ( 2019 ) guidelines on e-commerce have facilitated countries to have regulations/laws to provide online customers with data privacy, safe transaction and build trust. Table Table2 2 explains policy guidelines on consumer protection based on a summary of online consumer challenges and possible remedies at different purchases stages.

Online consumer protection instruments

Stage	Challenge	Remedies
Pre-purchase	Information asymmetry: Consumers not knowing the identity and location of an online product supplier	Marketplace e-commerce entities have to display details about sellers offering goods
	Unfair business practises: E-commerce can require aggressive marketing tactics, including inaccurate information provided or deceptive ads	E-commerce entities could not adopt any unfair trade practice while offering goods and have to ensure that the advertisements for marketing of goods or services are consistent with the actual characteristics goods, access and usage conditions of goods
	Unwanted electronic commercial communications (spam): can be sent via email, messaging services, social networks and text messages to potential customers, raising issues of privacy and trust	Act is silent on privacy & trust but Rules ensure customers' protection from unsolicited correspondence can include an opt-in provision for permission to send messages
Purchase	Electronic contracts:
	Contract terms	Marketplace e-commerce entities have to display information relating to return, refund, exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment and modes of payment prominently to its users at the appropriate place on its platform
	Confusion on seller location and status	Marketplace e-commerce entities would provide a consumer information regarding the seller from which he bought product, principal geographic address of its headquarters and all branches and name and details of its website for effective dispute resolution
	Cooling-off period:	E-commerce entities could not impose cancellation charges on consumers unless similar charges are borne by them
	Online payment security:	E-commerce entities have to display information on available payment methods and the security of those payment methods prominently to its users at the appropriate place on its platform
	Personal information protection:	Disclosure by the electronic service providers any personal information of the consumer would be termed as unfair trade practice
Post-purchase	Liability rules:	Failing to comply with any direction of CCPA invites imprisonment up to 6 months and fine up to two million rupees; and false or misleading advertisement invites imprisonment up to 2 years and fine up to one million rupees
Post-purchase	Dispute resolution:	E-commerce entities establish an adequate grievance redress mechanism appoint a grievance officer, who would acknowledge receipt of complaint within 48 h and to redress complaint within 1 month from date of receipt of complaint

Source: Authors’ compilation

Research Issue and Objective

The research gap identification involves reviewing the literature on various aspects of e-commerce and consumer rights protection issues spanning two decades. An objective review of 36 highly rated (Scopus/Web Services/ABDC Ranking or the like) e-commerce related publications from over 100 articles published in the last 20 years (2000–2020) suggests that the vast majority of earlier studies in this field have been conceptual/theoretical and generic. Regarding the legal framework of e-commerce and consumers’ rights protection, six current papers exclusively in the Indian context were available for analysis and review. The observations are that while the focus on consumer privacy and rights protection concerns is too general, the legal framework's scrutiny has limited its scope. A review of selected studies on trust and consumer rights protection in e-commerce, as shown in Table Table3, 3 , reveals that application aspects, particularly legal issues, are lacking. Indian experience in e-commerce consumer rights protection through jurisprudence is nascent. Review studies show the research of a combination of management and law-related analysis in e-commerce and consumer rights protection is lacking. This scenario showed a gap in exploring a more comprehensive research opportunity in the Indian context.

Summary of selected studies on trust in e-commerce and consumer protection in e-commerce: research gap identification

Author & year	Purpose of research	Important features studied
Agag ( )	Studies developing and empirically testing framework explaining impact of SMEs B2B e-commerce ethics on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty	Buyers’ perceptions of supplier ethics construct composing of six dimensions (security, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, service recovery, shared value, and communication) as predictive of online buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty
Agag and EI-Masry ( )	Examines factors influencing consumer intention to participate in online travel community	Model development for examining antecedents of consumers' intention to participate in online travel communities
Rybak ( )	Examines role of trust in e-commerce and world wide web	Identification of satisfaction and knowledge factors related to trust in online sales context
Ayilyath ( )	Analyzes Consumer Protection Act, 2019 addressing needs of consumers of e-commerce transactions and making its brief comparison with existing legal framework in European Union for protection of the consumers of e-commerce	Review of draft Consumer Protection (e-Commerce) Rules, 2020
Belanche et al. ( )	Analyses food delivery services phenomenon from mobile app user’s perspective and changing consumers’ lifestyles	Conditions of ecommerce transactions relevant to formation of trust problems
Chandni ( )	Deals with relationship and impact on consumers in Indian e-commerce sector	Proposal for separate legislation in light of different dimensions inherent in e-commerce sector
Chia ( )	Develops e-business research value creation, reward or creating promotions for customers’ trust building between company and customers	Trust building factors and knowledge management
Eastlick et al. ( )	Investigates whether traditional business-to-business relationship marketing framework could be applied to information-intensive online business-to-consumer channel	Consumers' privacy concerns and perceived e-tailer's reputation on their trust, commitment and purchase intent toward services e-tailer
Fang et al. ( )	Studies of extending DeLone and McLean's IS success model by introducing justice and trust into theoretical model for analyzing customers' repurchase intentions in context of online shopping	Trust, net benefits, and satisfaction as positive predictors of customers' repurchase intentions toward online shopping-information quality; system quality, trust, and net benefits, as determinants of customer satisfaction; online trust building through distributive, procedural, and interactional justice
Freestone and Mitchell ( )	Addresses internet related ethics and describes ways in which young consumers misdemean on internet and their attitudes	Generation Y-attitude of techno-savvy young consumers-behavior/aberrant bahavior
Lăzăroiu et al. ( )	Explores role of trust and online perceived risk in shaping consumer decision making	Consumers’ purchase decision-making process, determinant components of social commerce purchase intentions and attitudes, effect of perceived risk on intention to go shopping in online settings, and consumer trust and buying behavior on online retailing platforms
Grabner-Kraeuter ( )	Examines role of consumer trust as foundation for diffusion and acceptance of e-commerce	Various conditions of e-commerce transactions having relevance to formation of trust problems
Husted and Allen ( )	Explores impact of individualism and collectivism on basic aspects of ethical decision making	Linkage between moral judgment and behavior related to individualism and collectivism
Elbeltagi and Agag ( )	Develops testing of comprehensive model of online retailing ethics	Consumer perception of online retailing ethics as second-order construct composing five constructs-security, privacy, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, and service recovery, and its relationship with satisfaction
Jain and Jain ( )	Studies e-commerce under different jurisdiction and its effects on competition	Potential competition issues beneficial to consumers
Khandelwal ( )	Examines e-commerce policy draft with respect to its relevance on restrictions imposed on global online retailers	Investment opportunities for both local and global players in e-commerce
Kracher ( )	Studies understanding online trust through offline world trust research	Overview of existing trust literature from fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, management, and marketing
Leonidou et al. ( )	Reviews consumers’ perceptions of unethicality of business practices in terms of trust, satisfaction, and loyalty	Perceptions of unethicality of business practices of firms and its affect on behavior in terms of trust, satisfaction, and loyalty
Lin and Lekhawipat ( )	Investigates effects of online shopping experience and habit in relation to adjusted expectations for increasing online repurchase intention	Online shopping habit as moderator of both customer satisfaction and adjusted expectations
Harrigan et al. ( )	Assessing factors on social media driving intention to purchase fashion‐related products, focusing on role of trust	Combined technology acceptance model and consumer socialisation theory exploring mediating role of trust in rapidly expanding and growing industry sector in Europe
Majithia ( )	Explores evolution of intermediary liability in India by examining its legal framework and jurisprudence developed by Indian courts	Self-regulatory mechanism combating online proliferation of counterfeits
Miyazaki and Fernandez ( )	Explores risk perceptions among consumers of varying levels of Internet experience and related perceptions on online shopping activity	Relationships among consumers’ levels of Internet experience, use of alternate remote purchasing methods, perceived risks of online shopping
Nandini ( )	Examines various developments of law and policy in National and International sphere for protection of consumers' rights protection in B2C e-age contracts	Alternative dispute resolution, a mode to protect consumer interest in B2C transactions
Nardal and Sahin ( )	Measures consumers’ perceptions regarding ethical issues of online retailing	Ethical problems-security, privacy, reliability and non deception on Internet
Roman ( )	Discusses ethical issues surrounding online shopping	Reliable and valid scale to measure consumers’ perceptions regarding ethics of online retailers
Roman and Cuestas ( )	Studies of conceptualization and measurement of consumers’ perceptions regarding ethics of online retailers	Consumers’ perceptions regarding ethics of online retailers as second-order construct composed of four dimensions: security, privacy, fulfillment, and non-deception
Sharma and Lijuan ( )	Investigates various factors influencing consumer trust and privacy on e-commerce system and identify different ethical factors affecting consumer perceptions toward e-commerce adoption	E-commerce ethics on consumer purchases and its influence on online marketing; building trust to enhance customer commitment and loyalty
Shirazi et al.( )	Assesses effect of trust in developing satisfaction in e-commerce	Role of trust establishing relationship between customers' social media activities and customers' satisfaction
Stead and Gilbert ( )	Reviews incredible growth of e-commerce and emerging ethical issues	Security concerns
Suh and Han ( )	Investigates impact of customer perceptions of security control on e-commerce acceptance	Trust as mediating factor of relationship- perceptions of nonrepudiation, privacy protection, and data integrity
Thakur et al. ( )	Studies relationship of trust antecedents with consumer trust and consumer trust with online shopping activities	Relationship between knowledge and privacy protection in consumer trust; Important antecedents of trust building among consumers towards online shopping (Security protection, perceived risk, and perceived benefits)
Van Dyke et al.( )	Examines relationship between consumer privacy empowerment, familiarity, privacy concern and trust	New construct–consumer privacy empowerment in online vending
Wajeeha et al.( )	Analyzes factors gauging e-customer’s trust and e-customer loyalty in (B2C) domain	Website user interface quality, information quality, awareness of e-commerce, and perceived privacy and impact on trust building in e-commerce
Xiaodong and Min ( )	Under purpose of research: Studied characteristics of e-commerce useraccess sequence	Under important features studied: Similarity algorithm, non-numerical and nonequal length sequences features, types of ecommerce users prominent fragmentation characteristics, online browsing behaviour
Wang et al. ( )	Creates an ethical and trustworthy social commerce community for brand value co-creation	Based on trust-commitment theory, developing model aiming to create ethical and trustworthy social commerce community for brand value co-creation
Zhi Yang et al. ( )	Explores roles of e-retailers’ ethics to fit in perspectives of developing countries	Consumers’ perception regarding ethics of online retailers in Vietnam
Zuhal ( )	Identifies online fraud and trust towards technology influencing intention to use e-commerce among generation Y	Trust and online fraud relationship with consumer intention in e-commerce

While e-commerce and electronic transactions have evolved as a global trend, it is noteworthy that Indian customers are still reluctant to place complete confidence and trust in commercial online transactions. Compared to conventional offline customers, online customers face greater risk in cyberspace because they negotiate with unknown vendors and suppliers. 16 The common issues 17 related to e-commerce are data privacy and security, product quality, uncertain delivery, no/low scope of replacement, the jurisdiction of filing complaints, and inconceivable terms and conditions (Lahiri, 2018 ). “Country of origin” of the product is a significant issue in e-commerce, particularly in cross-border transactions (Bhattacharya et al., 2020 ). The inadequacy of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and other associated laws has surged the insecurity and lack of trust among online customers. The significance of digital payments pursued by the Government of India's essential demonetisation policy-2016 has pushed for online transaction security and consumer protection in e-commerce activities. Therefore, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 18 replaced the Consumer Protection Act 1986 and became effective with effect from 20 July 2020, 19 while on 7 July 2020, the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 20 came into force to address the e-commerce challenges. Nevertheless, it was evident that to attract additional investment and to engage with the global market, India, as an emerging country, had to gain the confidence of e-consumers.

Methodology

Figure 5 highlights the research framework and process.

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Research framework and process

Deficiency in Act, 1986 and Key Feature of the New Act Governing E-Commerce Consumer Protection

The rapid development of e-commerce has led to new delivery systems for goods and services and has provided new opportunities for consumers. Simultaneously, this has also exposed the consumer vulnerable to new forms of unfair trade and unethical business. The old Act, 1986, has severe limitations regarding its applicability and adjudication processes in consumer rights protection in e-commerce. The new Act, 2020 brings fundamental changes regarding its scope of application, penalty and governance; and envisages CCPA and vests regulating and controlling powers. Table Table4 4 explains the comparative picture between the old Act, 1986 and the new Act, 2019.

Comparison between old Act, 1986 and new Act, 2019

Key factors	Act, 1986	Act, 2019
Regulating authority	No separate regulator	CCPA to consider disputes/grievance on unfair contracts
Scope	Both goods and services for consideration and affordable and personal services are exempt	Both goods and services, including telecommunications and housing development, and all forms of purchases (online, teleshopping, etc.) for consideration. Free and personal services shall be exempt
Product liability	No provision	Claim for product liability provision included
Alternative dispute redress mechanism	No provision	Mediation cell to function at DCDRC, SCDRC and NCDRC
E-commerce	No provision	Provision included with clear definition of e-commerce terms
Unfair contracts	No provision	Provision included defining six contract terms to be held as unfair contracts
Central Protection Council	Existed at district, state and national level to promote and protect consumer rights	Makes advisory bodies at District, State and National level to promote and protect consumer rights
Pecuniary jurisdictions	District consumer dispute redressal forum (DCDRF)-Up to Rs 1 million	District consumer dispute redressal commission (DCDRC)
	State consumer dispute redressal commission (SCDRC)-between Rs 1 million-Rs. 10 million	State consumer dispute redressal commission (SCDRC)-between Rs 10 million-Rs. 100 million
	National consumer dispute redressal commission (NCDRC)-above Rs. 10 million	National consumer dispute redressal commission (NCDRC)-above Rs. 100 million

Necessary definition/explanation connected to e-commerce provided by the Act are:

Consumer: Meaning

If a person buys any goods and hires or avails any service online through electronic means, the person would be a consumer of the Act [Explanation b to s.2 (7)].

Product Seller: Electronic Service Providers

The electronic service providers are the product sellers under the Act and have the same duties, responsibilities, and liabilities as a product seller [s.2 (37)].

Unfair Trade Practice: Disclosing Personal Information

Unfair trade practice under the Act [s.2 (47) (ix)] refers to electronic service providers disclosing to another person any personal information given in confidence by the consumer.

Authorities: Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)

Execute inquiries into infringements of customer rights and initiate lawsuits.
Order for the recall of dangerous/hazardous/unsafe products and services.
Order the suspension of unethical commercial practises and false ads.
Impose fines on suppliers or endorsers or publishers of false advertising.

Penal provisions

Causes Dangerous/hazardous/unsafe goods	Penal provisions (U/s 20 of the Act)	Causes False/misleading advertisements	Penal provisions (U/s 21 of the Act)
Default/No injury	Fine up to Rs. 100 k with imprisonment up to 6 months	Harmful to consumer or contravention of consumer rights	Directives to trader, manufacturer, endorser, advertiser, or publisher to discontinue such an advertisement, or modify it in a manner specified by the authority, within a given time
Default/No injury	Fine up to Rs. 100 k with imprisonment up to 6 months	Harmful to consumer or contravention of consumer rights	Depending on gravity of concern, fine up to Rs 1 million with imprisonment up to 2 years on the manufacturer or endorser
With injury	Fine up to Rs. 300 k with imprisonment up to 1 year	Subsequent offense	Fine up to Rs 5 million with imprisonment up to 5 years on the manufacturer or endorser
Grievous injury	Fine up to Rs. 500 k with imprisonment up to 1 year	Subsequent violations	Ban up to 1 year and extendable up to 3 years for repeated violations
Death	Fine up to Rs. 500 k with imprisonment up to 7 years extendable to life imprisonment	Subsequent violations

Redress Mechanism

The provisions laid down in Sect. 28 through Sect. 73 deal with various aspects of the consumer dispute redress system. The new Act has changed the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum terminology to the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. The pecuniary jurisdiction of filling complaints in the three-tier consumer courts at the District, State and National level has increased (Table (Table5). 5 ). For better understanding, Fig. 6 shows a diagrammatic picture of the judicial system of dispute settlement.

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Grievance redress mechanism

Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020

Applicability (Rule 2)

The Rules apply to:

i. Both products and services acquired or sold through automated or electronic networks;
ii. All models of e-commerce retail;
iii. All the e-commerce entities, whether they have inventory or market place model. The inventory-based model includes an inventory of goods and services owned by an e-commerce entity and directly sold to consumers [Rule 3(1) f]. In the marketplace model, an e-commerce entity has an information infrastructure platform on a digital and electronic network that facilitates the consumer and the seller. [Rule 3(1)g];
iv. All aspects of unfair trading practise in all models of e-commerce; and
v. An e-commerce entity is offering goods or services to consumers in India but not established in India.

General Duties of E-commerce Entities (Rule 4)

The duties of e-commerce entities are:

i. An e-commerce entity must be a company incorporated under the Companies Act.
ii. Entities must appoint a point of contact to ensure compliance with the Act.
iii. They have to establish an adequate grievance redress mechanism; they would appoint a grievance officer for this purpose and display his name, contact details, and designation of their platform. He would acknowledge the complaint's receipt within 48 h and resolve the complaint within a month from receipt of the complaint.
iv. If they are offering imported goods, the importers’ names and details from whom the imported goods are purchased, and the sellers’ names are to be mentioned on the platform.
v. They cannot impose cancellation charges on consumers unless they bear similar costs.
vi. They have to affect all payments towards accepted refund requests of the consumers within a reasonable period.
vii. They cannot manipulate the goods' prices to gain unreasonable profit by imposing unjustified costs and discriminating against the same class of consumers.

Liabilities of Marketplace E-commerce Entities (Rule 5)

The liabilities of marketplace e-commerce entities include the following:

i. The marketplace e-commerce entity would require sellers to ensure that information about goods on their platform is accurate and corresponds with the appearance, nature, quality, purpose of goods.
ii. They would display the following information prominently to its users at the appropriate place on its platform:
• Details about the sellers offering goods-principal geographic address of its headquarters and all branches and name and details of its website for effective dispute resolution.
• Separate ticket/docket/complaint number for each complaint lodged through which the user can monitor the status of the complaint.
• Information about return/refund/exchange, warranty and guarantee, delivery and shipment, payment modes and dispute/grievance redress mechanism.
• Information on the methods of payment available, the protection of such forms of payment, any fees or charges payable by users.
iii. They would make reasonable efforts to maintain a record of relevant information allowing for the identification of all sellers who have repeatedly offered goods that were previously removed under the Copyright Act/Trademarks Act/Information Technology Act.

Sellers’ Duties on the Marketplace (Rule 6)

The duties of sellers on the market encompass:

i. The seller would not adopt any unfair trade practice while offering goods.
ii. He should not falsely represent himself as a consumer and post-product review or misrepresent any products' essence or features.
iii. He could not refuse to take back goods purchased or to refund consideration of goods or services that were defective/deficient/spurious.
iv. He would have a prior written contract with the e-commerce entity to undertake sale.
v. He would appoint a grievance officer for consumer grievance redressal.
vi. He would ensure that the advertisements for the marketing of goods or services are consistent with the actual characteristics, access and usage conditions of goods.
vii. He will provide the e-commerce company with its legal name, the primary geographic address of its headquarters and all subsidiaries/branches, the name and details of the website, e-mail address, customer contact details such as faxes, landlines and mobile numbers, etc.

Duties and Liabilities of Inventory E-commerce Entities (Rule 7)

The Act 2019 has several provisions for regulating e-commerce transactions with safety and trust. Since the Act is new, it would be premature to comment on its operational aspects and effectiveness. In a recent judgement in Consumer Complaint No 883 of 2020 ( M/s Pyaridevi Chabiraj Steels Pvt. Ltd vs National Insurance Company Ltd , the NCDRC 21 has proved the Act's operational effectiveness by deciding the maintainability of a claim's jurisdiction based on the new Act's provisions. However, it is inevitable that "beware buyer" will be replaced by "beware seller/manufacturer"; the consumer will be the real king. The Rules 2020 strike a balance between the responsibilities of e-commerce business owners and on-the-platform vendors. Contravention, if any, of the new regulation/rules would invite the provisions of the Act 2019. The observation is that limited liability partnerships are missing from the e-commerce entities. However, with the Act and Rules' operational experience, the judiciary or legislature will address this issue sooner or later.

Practical Contributions

Given this backdrop, Table Table6 6 summarises the micro findings on respondents' online shopping behaviour, their trust and safety aspects, and understanding of the provisions of the new Act, 2019 and Rules, 2020. The higher mean value for a sub-factor implies higher importance attached to the factor by the respondents. P value at a 5% level of significance explains an individual element's contribution to trust-building behaviour for online buying.

Statistical analysis of online shopping trust factors ( N = 290)

Factors/Sub-factors	Monthly	2 times pm	> 2 times pm	value (5% level)
Security
Secure and reliable payment systems; Information about how security solutions work; Possibility to choose payment method (cash on delivery, debit/credit card)	4.95	4.91	4.90
Privacy
How the personal information that you fill in, when ordering, are handled; Policy for the handling of personal information, on a visible place on the company’s homepage	4.92	4.91	.83
Warranty/Guarantee
Standard terms in connection to order form (terms for returns, refunds etc.); Coordination on the order and purchase/tracking	4.92	4.91	4.83
Customer service/grievance redress
Possibility to be able to ask questions and get help directly, online/chatboot or mobile; Feedback/evaluation/experience rating	4.89	4.93	4.83
Website& Information
Design& functionality-how website looks, user friendly, easy navigation; Information about company& product details; About reviews	3.56	3.68	3.59
Act and Rules
Understanding of the new Act, 2019	3.21	3.42	3.88	–
Understanding of the Rules, 2020	3.14	3.29	3.01
(290/%)

Managerial Insights

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Model for consumers’ trust on e-commerce transactions

Limitations

Conclusions, Implications and Future Research

Conclusions.

Implications

Future Research

Acknowledgements

The authors express their appreciation to the section editor and two anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments and constructive suggestions to improve the paper's quality.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Declarations

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

1 See The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) guidelines on e-commerce https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/groups/wggna/GuideByChapters/Chapter_13.pdf , pp 249–263, Accessed 7 October 2020.

2 Consumer International is a champion in the sustainable consumer movement for the last 60 years. Its vision for the future of 2030 is to address three issues-sustainability, digitalization and inclusion. See for more details https://www.consumersinternational.org/who-we-are/ .

3 econsumer.gov came into being in April 2001, addresses international scams and guides its members to combat fraud worldwide; see for details https://econsumer.gov/#crnt .

4 For more details, refer to https://icpen.org/consumer-protection-around-world .

5 For a detailed report, see https://www.worldretailcongress.com/__media/Global_ecommerce_Market_Ranking_2019_001.pdf , Accessed 10 October 2020.

6 Complete report available at https://business.adobe.com/resources/digital-economy-index.html , Accessed 10 October 2020.

7 https://www.ibef.org/news/vision-of-a-new-india-US$-5-trillion-economy , Accessed 7 October 2020.

8 Government of India’s press release, see https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1603982 , Accessed 7 October 2020.

9 See CUTS International survey at https://cuts-citee.org/pdf/Discussion_Paper_E-Commerce_in_the_Context_of_Trade_Consumer_Protection_and_Competition_in_India.pdf , CSA Research at https://insights.csa-research.com/reportaction/305013126/Marketing , https://insights.csa-research.com/reportaction/305013125/Marketing , and UNTAD study at https://unctad.org/page/data-protection-and-privacy-legislation-worldwide , Accessed 12 December 2020.

10 https://innovationtactics.com/business-model-canvas-airbnb/ , Accessed 12 December 2020.

11 Detailed findings at https://insights.csa-research.com/reportaction/305013125/Marketing , Accessed 19 October 2020.

12 Amazon India began testing a Hindi for its mobile website, marking its first foray into vernacular languages in August 2018.

13 Flipkart started voice assist in multiple languages - Hindi and English to make shopping easier in June 2020 .

14 See cross-border shopping statistics and trends at https://www.invespcro.com/blog/cross-border-shopping/ , Accessed 15 October 2020.

15 https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/consumer-markets/consumer-insights-survey/2020/pwc-consumer-insights-survey-2020.pdf , Accessed 15 October 2020.

16 For global trend-access, explore, and personalized insights, see details at https://www.forrester.com/data/forecastview/reports# , Accessed 15 October 2020.

17 For defined common issues, see Government’s e-gazette at http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2020/220661.pdf , Accessed 15 October 2020.

18 https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/sites/default/files/Act%20into%20force.pdf , Accessed 30 October 2020.

19 See Government’s e-gazette notification http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/210422.pdf , Accessed 30 October 2020.

20 Government of India’s press release see https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1656161 and for detailed Rules see https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/theconsumerprotection/consumer-protection-e-commerce-rules-2020 .

21 Full reported case details are available at https://indiankanoon.org/doc/49459460/ , Accessed November 22, 2020.

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Neelam Chawla, Email: [email protected] .

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DOI: 10.55355/snv2024131302
Corpus ID: 272356833

On the issue of preparing future teachers to broadcast family values to students in an information society

M. Aldoshina
Published in Samara Journal of Science 1 March 2024
Education, Sociology

3 References

Systematization of family education traditions: a socio-pedagogical classifier, post-pedagogical syndrome of the digimodernism age, the building professional values of students in modern university education, related papers.

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California's Privacy Regulator Issues Enforcement Guidance on How To Avoid "Dark Patterns" in Obtaining Consumer Consent

On September 4, 2024, the California Privacy Protection Agency ("CPPA") announced that it issued an Enforcement Advisory ("Advisory") providing guidance on how to avoid using prohibited "Dark Patterns" to obtain consent from consumers. Businesses subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act ( CCPA ) routinely request consent from consumers related to their personal information and in handling consumer requests to exercise their statutory rights regarding their personal information. The CPPA's advisory is a strong signal that the time for businesses to identify and remove Dark Patterns in these processes is now—before the CPPA commences enforcement—by reviewing user interfaces to ensure the language and interface design offering consumers privacy choices is clear and symmetrical.

What Is a Dark Pattern?

The CCPA defines a Dark Pattern as " a user interface designed or manipulated with the substantial effect of subverting or impairing user autonomy, decisionmaking, or choice …." [1] The CPPA's regulations, in nearly identical language, say that a user interface uses Dark Patterns if the interface has the effect of " substantially subverting or impairing user autonomy, decisionmaking, or choice ." [2] Under the CCPA, in many cases businesses' ability to lawfully collect and process consumer information depends on obtaining consumers' consent. The CPPA expressly provides, however, that agreements to process personal information that are obtained through Dark Patterns do not constitute consent. [3]

To avoid creating a Dark Pattern, [4] business processes for consent and exercise of consumer rights must:

Be easy to understand.
Use "symmetry in choice," which means that the path for a consumer to exercise a more privacy-protective option cannot be longer, more difficult, or time-consuming than to exercise a less privacy-protective option.
Avoid language or interactive elements that are confusing to consumers.
Avoid "choice architecture" that impairs or interferes with a consumer's ability to make a choice.
Be easy for the consumer to execute, without unnecessary burden or friction. [5]

A business's intent when designing a consumer interface or process is not determinative. [6] According to the press release announcing the Advisory:

" Dark patterns aren't about intent, they're about effect," said Michael Macko, Deputy Director of the CPPA's Enforcement Division. "The law gives consumers the right to make their privacy choices without jumping through confusing hoops or solving puzzles. Businesses need to ask themselves the right questions about their user interfaces and make sure they aren't part of the problem ."

Examples of Dark Patterns

The CCPA regulations already contain examples of Dark Patterns. [7] The Advisory reiterates some of those examples as a reminder to businesses:

Dark Pattern Unequal Choice : A process for opting out of sale or sharing of consumer personal information that requires the consumer to take more steps than the process to opt in.
Symmetrical or Equal Choice : A website banner seeking consumer consent to use personal information gives the consumer a single step choice for available processing options such as "accept all" or "decline all."
Dark Pattern Unequal Choice : The opt-in choice presented to customers for the sale of their personal information consists of only "yes" and "ask me later."
Symmetrical or Equal Choice : The opt-in choice presented to customers for the sale of their personal information consists of "yes" and "no."

The Advisory also contains images of three personal information consent processes that are commonly used across the internet, such as:

A content preferences box with multiple toggles for various data collection purposes, including the use of cookies for marketing and opting out of the sale of personal information.
A single "ok" button to acknowledge that a site uses cookies for a range of purposes.
A cookie banner that says a website will collect and use cookies and gather other "information" and "data" from a user's device and browser, where the user only has the options of "enhance my experience" and "other choices."

It is easy to read between the lines to see which of these is—in the CPPA's view—a Dark Pattern, although the Enforcement Advisory does not expressly say. Instead, it recommends that businesses ask themselves these questions:

Is the language easy to read and understand?
Is the language straightforward and does it avoid technical and legal jargon?
Is the consumer's path to saying "no" longer than the path to saying "yes?"
Does the interface make it more difficult to say "no" than "yes?"
Is it more time consuming for a consumer to make a more privacy-protective choice?

For a business (or the CPPA) to determine whether a process uses a Dark Pattern will require a fact-specific analysis, involving consideration not just of the literal words a business uses but also issues such as the size and color of fonts, the placement of information on a web page, and the specific steps—clicking links or checking boxes—that consumers need to take to opt into or out of permitting the collection and processing of their data. In the Advisory, the CPPA evidently wanted to remind businesses of some bright-line examples to avoid and to recommend a framework businesses can use in evaluating their own processes for obtaining consumer consent.

The Advisory contains a disclaimer saying that, like all CPPA advisories, it does not make law or provide a safe harbor. Enforcement is on a case-by-case basis, and the Advisory's examples are only hypotheticals that can guide a business's evaluation of its own processes. Nevertheless, the Advisory provides strong insight into the CPPA's assessment of what would constitute a Dark Pattern.

It's Not Just California

As noted above, California law expressly bans the use of Dark Patterns as a valid means of obtaining consumer consent. But it's not just California. Other states, including Colorado and Connecticut, also expressly call out Dark Patterns as problematic in their privacy statutes. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has signaled that it intends to make elimination of Dark Patterns an enforcement priority under its general authority to prevent "unfair" or "deceptive" trade practices. So, all businesses with an online presence that collect information from consumers should carefully review their user interfaces in light of the enforcement risks posed by these new and evolving state and federal-level concerns.

If you have questions about whether your business processes involve Dark Patterns, please contact us for assistance.

[1] Cal. Civ. Code. § 1798.140(l).

[2] 11 CCR § 7004 (c).

[3] Cal. Civ. Code. §1798.140(h).

[4] 11 CCR § 7004 (b).

[5] 11 CCR § 7004 (a).

[6] 11 CCR § 7004 (c).

[7] 11 CCR § 7004.

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Descriptive-analytics solutions are popular among marketers and retailers. This paper provides a benchmark for the benefits of using a descriptive dashboard and illustrates how to potentially extract these benefits. Consumer behavior research from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including behavioral economics, brand loyalty, and how ...
Impact of COVID‐19 on changing consumer behaviour: Lessons from an
The present study investigates the impact of COVID‐19 on Consumers' changing way of life and buying behaviour based on their socio‐economic backgrounds. A questionnaire survey was carried out to understand the impact of COVID‐19 on consumers' affordability, lifestyle, and health awareness and how these effects influenced their buying ...
Essays on Consumer Protection
Essays on Consumer Protection. Essay examples. Essay topics. 7 essay samples found. ... process of development along with the expanding globalization and liberalization process has increased the number of consumer-related issues. Consumer protection has earned an important place in the political, economic and social agendas of many nations. ...
Essay on Consumer Rights
Long Essay on Consumer Rights 500 Words in English. Long Essay on Consumer Rights is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10. ... The right to be heard in all the decision-making processes which are related to the interests of the consumers. The right to seek redressal on the infringement of consumer rights.
Full article: The power of advertising in society: does advertising
Most of the work related to marketing and CWB focuses more on subjective well-being. However, Michel et al. ... In an effort to understand the effects of advertising on consumer well-being, this special issue sought papers to discern these issues better by answering the single question, 'Does advertising help or hinder well-being'. ...
PDF Awareness of Consumer Rights: a Review of Literature
the consumer. Right to education: This right explains the consumer about the practices and their remedies to be used. NEED FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION Consumer protection rights are to protect consumer from the seller's fraudulent practices. Each diurnal customers use uncountable goods and also services assuming the products are consumable and safe.
Rights and Duties of Consumers: [Essay Example], 2592 words
The process of development along with the expanding globalization and liberalization process has increased the number of consumer-related issues. Consumer protection has earned an important place in the political, economic and social agendas of many nations. In India, the Government has taken many steps including legislative, to protect consumers.
Food Waste: An Introduction to the Issue and Questions that Remain
Food waste is a problem throughout the supply chain and across the globe that is increasingly capturing the attention of policymakers. Gustavsson et al. (2011) estimated that one-third of the food produced for consumption globally is lost or wasted. Within the U.S., Buzby et al. (2014) estimated that 31% of food available at the retail and consumer levels was wasted,
Consumer Behavior Research: A Synthesis of the Recent Literature
Inevitably, these changes lead to changed consumer behavior studies by which, when, how, and why the topics are studied. Like any other discipline, systematic analysis of the knowledge development status of consumer behavior field is critical in ensuring its future growth (Williams & Plouffe, 2007).It is of a greater importance for a field of research such as consumer behavior that, as ...
Consumer Awareness, Consumer Rights and Responsibilities
Consumer Awareness is the process of making the consumer of goods and services aware of his rights. It involves educating a consumer about safety, information and the redressal options available to him. As previously discussed consumer awareness is one of the most persistent problems the government faces when it comes to consumer protection.
Strengthening Consumer Rights: The Advent of Consumer Protection Act
The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 was established to address the grievances of the consumer and to protect their interests. It was a laudable step at that point of time and amended from time to time. However, the three-decade-old legislation failed to keep pace with the developments in the market and digital technology in the country.
E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend
Given the rapid growth and emerging trend of e-commerce have changed consumer preferences to buy online, this study analyzes the current Indian legal framework that protects online consumers' interests. A thorough analysis of the two newly enacted laws, i.e., the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and literature review support analysis of 290 ...
Consumer Protection: Does It Work?
Consumer Protection: Does It Work Essay. Consumer protection has always been a special domain for numerous agencies and non-profit organisations. These organisations and agencies provide consumers with legal and information support, as they are building their relationships with sellers and suppliers. However, any violations of consumer laws and ...
Consumer Protection in the Era of E-Commerce: Issues and Challenges
Today consumer law is facing various issues and challenges as a result of the rapid development of e-commerce and globalised trade. The growth of borderless marketing and technology has grown over the years. There is a wide choice for online shopping for both manufacturers and consumers. These multinational companies and other enterprises which are engaged in e-commerce attract a large number ...
Consumer Awareness, Introduction, Meaning, Consumer Rights.
Consumer Awareness is a demonstration of ensuring the purchaser or buyer knows about the data and information about items, products, administrations, and buyers' privileges. Consumer awareness is significant with the goal that purchasers can settle on the best choice and settle on the ideal decision. Shoppers reserve the privilege to data or ...
E-Commerce and Consumer Protection in India: The Emerging Trend
Given the rapid growth and emerging trend of e-commerce have changed consumer preferences to buy online, this study analyzes the current Indian legal framework that protects online consumers' interests.A thorough analysis of the two newly enacted laws, i.e., the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and literature review support analysis of 290 online ...
On the issue of preparing future teachers to broadcast family values to
DOI: 10.55355/snv2024131302 Corpus ID: 272356833; On the issue of preparing future teachers to broadcast family values to students in an information society @article{Aldoshina2024OnTI, title={On the issue of preparing future teachers to broadcast family values to students in an information society}, author={Marina Ivanovna Aldoshina}, journal={Samara Journal of Science}, year={2024}, url ...
California's Privacy Regulator Issues Enforcement Guidance on How To
Avoid "choice architecture" that impairs or interferes with a consumer's ability to make a choice. Be easy for the consumer to execute, without unnecessary burden or friction. A business's intent when designing a consumer interface or process is not determinative. According to the press release announcing the Advisory:

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Strengthening Consumer Rights: The Advent of Consumer Protection Act, 2019

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Consumer Protection in e-Commerce and Online Services

Service Issues Affecting Consumer Behaviour Towards E-commerce Purchases in India

Protection of Consumer Rights in E-Commerce in India

Study Background

The Rationale for Consumer Protection in E-commerce

E-commerce Growth

Literature Review and Research Gap

Need and Instruments for Online Consumer Protection

Research Issue and Objective

Methodology

Deficiency in Act, 1986 and Key Feature of the New Act Governing E-Commerce Consumer Protection

Consumer: Meaning

Product Seller: Electronic Service Providers

Unfair Trade Practice: Disclosing Personal Information

Authorities: Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)

Redress Mechanism

Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020

Applicability (Rule 2)

General Duties of E-commerce Entities (Rule 4)

Liabilities of Marketplace E-commerce Entities (Rule 5)

Sellers’ Duties on the Marketplace (Rule 6)

Duties and Liabilities of Inventory E-commerce Entities (Rule 7)

Practical Contributions

Managerial Insights