Consumer Grievance Redressal (CGR) 2.0 

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The Indian e-commerce industry is witnessing significant growth. As digitalisation of trade and commerce is deepening, consumer disputes pertaining to e-commerce are rising exponentially. Moreover, with a growing number of users in e-commerce, it is necessary for e-commerce platforms to ease the process of buying things online and address them. Building ‘consumer trust’ is one of the primary objectives of any business, including e-commerce. Providing a swift and user-friendly grievance redressal mechanism is crucial in building consumer trust. Hence, there is a need for improvement in the consumer grievance redressal mechanism, particularly in the online resolution of consumer complaints stemming from e-commerce.

Sincere effort has been made by the government in the recent past to redress consumer grievances. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 has established the Central Consumer Protection Authority(CCPA). The CCPA regulates matters related to the violation of rights of consumers, unfair trade practices, misleading advertisements etc. The Central Government has also set up alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism(INGRAM), National and State Consumer Helplines, Ombudsman scheme.

Through this project, CUTS International aims to study the existing state of affairs on consumer grievance redressal in India and give recommendations on how it could be improved. A whitepaper would be drafted on the new age grievance redressal mechanism-Consumer Grievance Redressal 2.0- that can suit the present day e-consumers. This would be a significant value addition to the consumer welfare of e-consumers. A whitepaper would be written based on the research findings.