Effective and timely
dispute resolution is sine quo non for ease of doing business in any
country. India has been facing the problem of mammoth backlog of legal
cases that has overburdened the Indian judiciary to the extent of
almost collapse. This scenario is going to worsen in near future as
Indian government has been encouraging projects like digital India,
make in India, startups India, etc. As these fields are new, they
would give rise to litigation on the one hand and lack of knowledge
about these techno legal issues on the part of lawyers and judges on
the other hand.
Perry4Law
Organisation (P4LO) has come out with some techno
legal solutions to resolve these issues. It has launched
unique techno legal projects on e-courts
and online
dispute resolution (ODR) in India. These projects can be
utilised by Indian government, public sector undertakings (PSU),
Indian companies, multi national companies (MNCs), national and
international organisations, individuals, etc. One such segment that
can use these techno legal service is the e-commerce industry of
India. A prototype of a platform to resolve e-commerce disputes in
India can be accessed here.
We are working on a model that would utilise the existing and future
techno legal experience of P4LO regarding resolving e-commerce
disputes through ODR.
E-commerce has introduced
significant choices for Indian consumers and customers. However,
e-commerce in India has also given rise to many disputes by the
consumers purchasing the products from e-commerce websites.
There is no formal
e-commerce dispute resolution regulatory mechanism in India as we
have no dedicated e-commerce laws in India. In fact, many e-commerce
websites are not following Indian laws at all and they are also not
very fair while dealing with their consumers. Allegations of
predatory
pricing, tax avoidance, anti
competitive practices, etc have been leveled against big
e-commerce players of India.
As a result, disputes are
common in India that are not satisfactorily redressed. This reduces
the confidence in the e-commerce segment and the unsatisfied
consumers have little choice against the big e-commerce players. At a
time when we are moving toward global
norms for e-commerce business activities, the present
e-commerce environment of India needs fine tuning and regulatory
scrutiny. In fact, India is exploring the possibility of regulation
of e-commerce through either Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI)
or through different Ministries/Departments of Central Government in
a collective manner.
It is obvious that
e-commerce related issues are not easy to manage. E-commerce disputes
resolution is even more difficult and challenging especially when
Indian Courts are already overburdened with court cases. Of course,
establishment of e-courts
in India and use of online
dispute resolution (ODR) in India are very viable and
convincing options before the Indian Government.
To make ODR a success in
India, Techno
Legal Centre of Excellence for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in
India (TLCEODRI) has been providing its techno legal ODR
services to national and international stakeholders. TLCEODRI has now
decided to manage e-commerce
disputes resolution in India through its techno legal ODR
platform. To implement this initiative in a smooth manner, an ODR
Discussion Forum has been started by TLCEODRI.
We have also started a
dedicated Board/Thread at the ODR Discussion Forum for E-Commerce
Dispute resolution In India through ODR (registration required). This
is a good opportunity for e-commerce websites of India and abroad to
get good techno legal insight about Indian laws and their
implementation to e-commerce field.
The access and
registration to this Board is allowed to e-commerce websites alone
that have already been established and are operating in India. Our
existing e-commerce clients and other clients can contact
us for immediate activation of their accounts while the
registration request of other e-commerce websites would be duly
approved/disapproved by our moderators/administrators. If an
e-commerce websites is engaging us for our techno legal services, it
would be granted immediate access to this segment at its request.
Very soon we would
introduce additional features for e-commerce companies and online
consumers. This would also include online filing of complaints and
grievance by the consumers and other aggrieved individuals/companies
against the e-commerce companies of India and abroad. Such complaints
and grievances would be openly available for public access to general
public, regulatory authorities and other e-commerce stakeholders.
We would also introduce a
system where grievance can be managed by the e-commerce
companies/websites and their consumers through multiple dispute
resolution processes and stages of TLCEODRI. This would include
conciliation, mediation and arbitration through ODR mechanisms.
Please check our ODR Discussion Forum for regular updates about the
ODR services of TLCEODRI.
