BIS raids Amazon, Flipkart entities

Mumbai: The quality watchdog, Bureau of Indian Standards, Mumbai raided the global e-commerce giant Amazon and the subsidiary of another big player Flipkart in Thane, for certain irregularities, an official said.

Director and Head of BIS, Mumbai Branch Office II, Prem S. Patnala said that the searches and seizures were carried out at Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd. and Instakart Services Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Flipkart, both located in Bhiwandi.

During the operations, the BIS sleuths seized 9,985 items worth around Rs 3-crores from the Amazon warehouse, which were being sold without the mandatory BIS Certification.

Similarly, the officials seized 243 electric and mechanical toys of different brands worth around Rs. 3 lakhs from Instakart godown which were being sold without the BIS Certification, said Patnala.

“The action was taken under Section 17 read with Section 29 of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, which prohibits the sale of products without BIS certification in categories where it is mandatory. Legal proceedings will be initiated against the responsible entities,” said Patnala.

The penalties for the alleged offences include a jail term of up to two years or a fine of at least Rs. 2 lakhs, which can escalate to Rs. 5 lakhs or more for repeated violations, and may go up to ten times the value of the seized goods, he warned. Patnala said the BIS regularly conducts enforcement operations to prevent the sale of substandard and non-compliant products in the online markets. He also urged consumers to check the authenticity of products using the BIS Care App before purchasing anything.

Any instances of misuse or flouting of the rules can be reported in any format to safeguard against the misuse of BIS Standard Marks (ISI Mark, BIS Registration Mark, BIS Hallmark, or BIS Management System Certification) or through the BIS Care App, Patnala said.