Govt imposes penalties against some leading online stores for violating consumer protection rules

Key Highlights

• (The CCPA, set up under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, regulates matters relating to violation of rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of consumers).
• An official spokesman said the CCPA found that several platforms were facilitating the sale of walkie-talkies operating on restricted and sensitive radio frequency bands, without mandatory statutory approvals or disclosures.
• These devices were sold without informing consumers about the radio frequency range on which the device operates, whether the device requires a government licence, whether it has obtained Equipment Type Approval (ETA).
• ETA is a mandatory technical approval issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to ensure that wireless devices are compliant, safe and permitted for use in India.
• Many of these devices were found to operate in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band, which is a regulated spectrum also used by police, emergency services, disaster response agencies and other critical communication networks.