'Fake reviews on e-tailing platforms a big menace'

While online sales of products and services have grown exponentially, consumer complaints too have also risen almost as fast. Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, department of consumer affairs, spoke to Sandip Das on a range of initiatives taken to protect consumer interests. Excerpts

- Sandip Das

How has the department sought to address rising consumer complaints, especially in the online marketplace?

The power balance between consumers and sellers has changed dramatically over the last three to four decades. Earlier, we were buying stuff from mom-and-pop stores and there was a certain trust between the sellers and consumers.

If something went wrong on products sold, the sellers would readily address the issue. Now with big shopping malls and big players in the offline and online marketplace, especially with the entry of Amazon and Flipkart, the power balance between consumer and sellers is skewed.

In the malls there is still some face-to-face interaction between consumers and sellers.

In the online space, however, consumers can't even see the products and have to rely on advertisements. Misleading advertisements in online places is a growing menace and we are making efforts to curb it. The issue is covered under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 2019.

This problem of misleading advertisement will further get extenuated with artificial intelligence. AI directly target the consumers based on intelligence gathered on their preferences and bombard them with product information. Then there are reviews about the products and it's doubtful if these are authenticated. Fake reviews about the products is a big menace and has to be curbed.

What has been the outcome of the steps initiated to deal with "dark patterns" employed by the companies to lure consumers?