Amazon, Flipkart found to have violated Indian quality control rules during warehouse raids

Reuters

Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 5:54 AM 2 min read

(Reuters) -Retail giants Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart violated Indian prime power rules by stocking products that did not person the required standards certificate, India's apical government-run merchandise certification bureau said connected Thursday.

Raids connected warehouses operated by some firms, conducted connected Wednesday by the Bureau of Indian Standards successful the Tiruvallur territory of the confederate Indian authorities of Tamil Nadu, recovered that the firms had violated rules by storing, selling and exhibiting products that did not transportation the BIS modular mark, a authorities connection said.

A spokesperson for Amazon India said the institution was engaged intimately with assorted stakeholders including regulators, portion a Flipkart spokesperson said it worked with sellers to thrust consciousness and to comply with each applicable laws.

"The level has respective processes to reappraisal the listings sellers marque connected the marketplace, and besides conducts regular audits to guarantee compliance," a spokesperson for Flipkart said successful effect to a petition for comment.

The raids are the latest headache for the 2 firms, starring players successful India's e-commerce marketplace which consultancy steadfast Bain estimated was worthy $57 billion-$60 cardinal successful 2023 and acceptable to apical $160 cardinal successful worth by 2028.

At the Amazon warehouse, 3,376 products without the modular mark, including flasks, insulated nutrient containers, toys and ceiling fans were seized, according to the statement, portion officials seized diapers, casseroles and stainless alloy h2o bottles from the Flipkart warehouse.

Last September, an anti-trust probe recovered that some companies violated section contention laws by giving penchant to prime sellers connected their buying websites.

A fewer weeks later, successful November, investigators raided a fig of Amazon and Flipkart sellers pursuing a 2021 Reuters probe based connected interior Amazon documents that showed the institution had for years fixed preferential attraction to tiny groups of sellers, and utilized them to bypass Indian laws.

Amazon has denied wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Louise Heavens)