
New Delhi: The imperative customer safety authority (CCPA) on friday issued thirteen notices to leading wallet PLATFORM' target='_blank' title='digital-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>digital marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, and OLX regarding the listing and sale of walkie-talkies on their platforms without proper frequency disclosure, licensing facts, or equipment type approval (ETA).
Walkie-talkies are being offered on e-trade platforms without mandatory and clear disclosures regarding the requirement of a wi-fi operating license or compliance with applicable laws, in keeping with the Ministry of customer Affairs.
A preliminary evaluation further discovered an alarming extent of such listings across those structures, inclusive of about 467 listings on Amazon, 314 on Flipkart, 489 on Meesho, and 423 on TradeIndia, indicating the tremendous scale of the difficulty.
Union minister Pralhad Joshi said the sale of non-compliant Wi-Fi devices not only breaches statutory responsibilities but can also pose extensive risks to national safety operations.
"All dealers are required to strictly adhere to relevant regulatory standards to uphold consumer rights and prevent illegal exchange practices," the minister posted on the X social media platform. These structures consist of Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, OLX, TradeIndia, FB, Indiamart, VardaanMart, Jiomart, Krishnamart, Chimiya, Talk Pro Walie Talkie, and MaskMan toys.
The product listings for walkie-talkies no longer specify whether the tool calls for a license from the involved authority for use.
"The omission of info including frequency range, licensing obligations beneath the indian Telegraph Act, 1885, or the Wi-Fi Telegraphy Act, 1933, and using low-power, very low-energy, brief-range radio frequency devices (Exemption from Licensing Requirement) rules, 2018, and the ability to legally result in unauthorized use misleads consumers into believing that the devices are freely operable by the general public," stated the ministry.
Furthermore, the client protection (E-trade) policies of 2020 require marketplace e-trade entities to offer clean and reachable data that enables consumers to make informed choices at the pre-buy level.
The sale of non-compliant Wi-Fi gadgets in the absence of important regulatory disclosures misleads clients and represents a severe breach of statutory responsibilities.
The principal authority discovered that several structures were permitting the sale of walkie-talkies without surely specifying the frequency variety; without legitimate system type approval (ETA) from the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) Wing; and without right disclosure of licensing requirements to clients.
Consequently, the important authority has requested information concerning the call and to get in touch with details of each seller, product URLs and listing IDs of the walkie-talkie devices, information on frequency specs and any licensing statistics displayed at the listings, whether or not ETA/WPC certification information had been amassed or tested for this merchandise, and the quantity of units sold in keeping with the list from january 2023 to this point.