CCI initiates market study on e-commerce

New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has initiated a study on e-commerce to gather information and insights from market participants in goods and services.

The study includes sectors like mobile, grocery, food, electronic/ electrical appliances, lifestyle and hotels. According to the interim findings, restaurant owners, online platforms, hotels, online travel agencies, sellers and e-marketplace raised their concerns related to discounts, commission and algorithm issues.

Vendors or sellers said that e-commerce platforms give preferential treatment to certain sellers; there is a high search ranking for preferred sellers; and they feel compelled to participate in discounts.

On the other hand, e-commerce marketplace players have said that the sellers are independent third-party players; sellers participate in deals at their own discretion; search ranking of sellers is based on algorithms; and there is a mechanism in place to deal with unauthorised vendors selling counterfeit products.