BIS Raids Amazon, Flipkart Warehouses : BIS Conducts Raids on Amazon and Flipkart Warehouses, Seizes Substandard Goods

New Delhi, March 15 (NationPress) - The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has executed search and seizure operations across various warehouse sites of prominent e-commerce firms, including Amazon and Flipkart, in cities like Lucknow, Gurugram, and Delhi to tackle the distribution of non-compliant products.

In a recent raid on March 7 at an Amazon warehouse in Lucknow, BIS confiscated 215 toys and 24 hand blenders, all lacking essential BIS certification.

Previously, a similar raid at an Amazon warehouse in Gurugram resulted in the seizure of 58 aluminium foils, 34 metallic water bottles, 25 toys, 20 hand blenders, 7 PVC cables, 2 food mixers, and 1 speaker – all deemed non-certified, as per an official statement released on Saturday.

Likewise, during a raid at a Flipkart warehouse in Gurugram, managed by Instakart Services Pvt Ltd, BIS seized 534 stainless steel bottles (vacuum insulated), 134 toys, and 41 speakers that were also not certified.

BIS’s investigations into multiple infractions on both Amazon and Flipkart traced the non-certified products back to Techvision International Pvt Ltd. Following this lead, BIS conducted raids at two separate facilities of Techvision International in Delhi, uncovering around 7,000 electric water heaters, 4,000 electric food mixers, 95 electric room heaters, and 40 gas stoves, all lacking BIS certification. The non-certified products seized included brands like Digismart, Activa, Inalsa, Cello Swift, and Butterfly, among others, as stated.

In the wake of these seizures, BIS has initiated legal proceedings against the companies for breaching regulations. BIS has already filed two court cases against M/s Techvision International Pvt Ltd for violations of Sections 17(1) and 17(3) of the BIS Act, 2016. Additional cases are underway for other seizure operations.

Under Section 17 of the BIS Act, 2016, offenders face a penalty of not less than Rs 2 lakh, which may escalate to ten times the goods' market value. In serious cases, violations may also lead to imprisonment of up to two years.

BIS is proactively conducting market surveillance to ensure that consumer products offered in the market, including on e-commerce platforms, adhere to relevant safety and quality standards. As part of this surveillance, BIS purchases various consumer items and subjects them to thorough testing to confirm compliance with established standards.

The products under surveillance encompass commonly used consumer goods such as domestic pressure cookers, hand-held blenders, food mixers, electric irons, room heaters, PVC cables, gas stoves, toys, two-wheeler helmets, switches, sockets, and aluminium foils for food packaging. Given the potential dangers posed by substandard products, the Central Government has mandated BIS certification for these items in the public interest.

However, through its surveillance efforts, BIS has discovered numerous non-certified products available on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, Myntra, and BigBasket, despite the mandatory BIS certification requirement. These non-certified items include products that lack an ISI Mark or possess an ISI Mark with an invalid license number (CM/L number). Such non-certified products present substantial safety risks to consumers as they have not undergone independent third-party testing to ensure compliance with minimum safety and performance standards.

These extensive seizures underscore the pervasive issue of unsafe, non-certified products being marketed online, emphasizing the urgent necessity for e-commerce platforms to exercise more diligence in guaranteeing that only BIS-certified products are listed for sale, wherever mandated by the Central Government, according to the statement.

In this context, BIS has issued notices to all e-commerce platforms, instructing them to ensure that products requiring BIS certification are appropriately certified before being offered to consumers.

BIS has also encouraged consumers to make educated purchasing decisions by utilizing the BIS Care app. This application provides vital information on products that require mandatory BIS certification and allows consumers to verify the legitimacy of a product’s BIS certification by checking the ISI Mark and the manufacturer’s license number (CM/L). Additionally, consumers can use the BIS Care app to report products lacking the ISI Mark or raise quality concerns regarding BIS-certified products, as noted in the statement.