New Delhi (The Hawk): The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today shared the data from the National Consumer Helpline (NCH). From 01.01.2020 to 13.07.2022, 8740 grievances were registered by consumers against major cab aggregator companies for deficiency in services, inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanism, cancellation by drivers etc. These complaints have been taken up with the respective cab aggregators for redressal.
The Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 notified under Consumer Protection Act, 2019 require all e-commerce entities to establish a consumer grievance redressal mechanism, appoint a grievance officer for consumer grievance redressal and display the name, contact details and designation of such officer on its platform. The grievance officer is required to acknowledge the receipt of any consumer complaint within forty-eight hours and to redress the complaint within one month from the date of receipt of the complaint. Based on various complaints registered by consumers on NCH, notices have been issued to two major online ride hailing platforms. The notices raise multiple issues of violation of consumer rights and unfair trade practices by the platforms.