A Comparative Study of Consumer Protection Legislations of India, China and United States of America in context of e-Commerce

Abstract

With the advancement of internet and technology, buying trends have shifted from the brick-and-mortar market to the online marketplace. It’s the convenience of shopping and the kind of offers by the sellers online, increasing the growth of consumers in online shopping. The recent trends reveal that the consumers are more inclined towards online shopping than conventional shopping in spite of the anonymity of the seller. The recent trends of Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in e-commerce shows that the retailers prefer to sell their products through online markets. The wholesalers are also moving to online business to expand their business. With this, the cross-border market is expanding, making the consumer protection more alarming. The third-party sellers on online marketplaces, many of whom are based abroad and operating on a large scale, who too often don’t comply with product safety regulations and are almost impossible to contact when things go wrong. Stringent legislations to protect the consumers shall be made and implemented. It is important for the countries to make strong personal legislations and build international collaboration to protect the consumers from E-commerce frauds. A comparative study with respect to the consumer protection legislations with the top E-commerce market countries like China and USA, helps in understanding the kind of protection being given to the online shopping consumers and can aid in developing a powerful legislation for the same in India.