Amazon India discontinues many products due to new E-commerce rules

Guwahati: The newly implemented E-commerce rules are going to making business for the e-commerce portals quite troublesome and that can be seen now only with the Indian department of Amazon.com has faced widespread disruption in its service. The e-commerce site is compelled to discontinue quite an array of items from its India website which includes products like Echo speakers, batteries and floor cleaners etc.

As confirmed by two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the Amazon products started disappearing from the site late on Thursday as it has to comply with the revised norms before a midnight deadline.

One of the sources stated, “The company has no choice, they are fulfilling a compliance requirement ... customers will suffer.”

Notably, it was in December that India modified its foreign direct investment (FDI) rules for its burgeoning e-commerce sector and this drawn major stakes from Amazon.com and Walmart Inc along with homegrown e-commerce player Flipkart.

As per the new e-commerce investment rules, online sellers will not be allowed to sell products via vendors in which they have an equity interest. The online sellers are also barred from making deals with sellers to sell exclusively on their platforms. Hence, items sold by vendors like Cloudtail are no longer available on the Amazon India site who used to have an indirect equity stake with Amazon.

Similarly, Shopper’s Stop, Indian department store chain is also no longer available in Amazon. Along with all these, Amazon’s own range of Echo speakers, its Presto-branded home cleaning goods and Basics products too have disappeared from the website.

Although other e-commerce portals have complied with the new rules, Amazon and Walmart have pushed for a delay in their implementation and are now compelled to oblige before the end of the midnight deadline.

Speaking in a conference call with the reporters, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that the current situation in India is “a bit fluid right now.” However, they see a good long-term opportunity with the country. He also added that the main goal of their company is to minimize the impact of the new e-commerce rules on customers and sellers.

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