Liability of E-commerce Platforms to Comply with Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 – Abhi Traders v. Fashnear Technologies Private Limited & Ors.

The Plaintiff, a clothing retailer under the brand name “IBRANA,” filed an interim application before the Delhi High Court against Defendant No. 1, Fashnear Technologies Private Limited, an operator of the e-commerce platform “meesho.com” and Defendants No. 2 to 10 who are clothing retailers for copyright infringement and passing off.

The Plaintiff alleged that the Defendants No. 1 to 9 and an unknown party being Defendant No. 10, were improperly using its copyrighted images to list/showcase their own products under the goodwill of the Plaintiff’s products on the platform Meesho (“Platform”) which led to a significant drop in Plaintiff’s sale of original/actual products on the Platform. Further, the Plaintiff contended that the Defendant No. 1 failed to disclose the seller details while listing its product on their Platform which is a requirement under Rule 5(3)(a) of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 (“Rules”). The Court noted that the said requirement under the Rules aimed to protect the buyers of an e-commerce platform by allowing them to take an informed decision.

The Court ruled in favour of the Plaintiff by granting an ex-parte ad interim injunction and passed an order issuing the following directions:

• prohibiting Defendants No. 2 to 9 from using Plaintiff’s copyrighted images or similar designs for listing Defendants’ products and from duplicating Plaintiff’s designs;
• Defendant No. 1 to disclose seller details including addresses, contact information, sales, GST details and payments made to sellers as per the Rules;
• Plaintiff to provide a list of infringing URLs to the Defendant No. 1’s counsel within seven (7) working days for the Defendant No. 1 to take down such URLs.