New E-retail rules came into effect on Friday that caused a lot of products to be removed from Amazon.in, the new rules led amazon to remove products like batteries, Echo Speakers, and Floor cleaners from their official website.

Sources say that the products started to be removed from Amazon.in on Thursday as the new e-retail rules came into effect.

One of the sources said that: “The company has no choice, they are fulfilling a compliance requirement … customers will suffer.”

Back in December 2018, India improved its FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) rules for its fast growing e-commerce sector, the rules draw bets from major e-commerce companies like Amazon, Walmart, and India’s own e-commerce giant Flipkart.

The new e-retail rules bar online sellers from selling their products via vendors that allows them to make an equity interest, and it also allows sellers to sell their products exclusively on their platforms.

On Thursday, a lot of items that were being sold by Cloudtail were removed from their website, amazon holds an indirect equity stake with the vendor.

Shopper’s Stop’s products were also removed from their website, the online clothing store was partially owned by Amazon (5 Percent).

Even their own products were removed, Echo Speakers and their Presto home cleaning goods were removed, their other basics products like batteries and chargers were also gone from their e-commerce website.

Amazon and Walmart tried to delay the implementation, but it did not happen. A number of their products were removed in India on late Thursday.

Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky called the implementation “a bit fluid right now,” but even with the latest implementation he believes that India still remains a long-term opportunity for them.

He also said that the goal of their company right now is to minimize the effect of the new e-retail news on sellers and their loyal customers.

 

The government of the United States urged India to make efforts and try to protect the investments of the two retailers.

Amazon commited to invest $ 5.5 Billion USD in India, and Walmart spent $ 16 Billion USD on Flipkart last year.

The administration under the rule of Prime Minister Modi is seen as the keen to appease traders as the general elections are coming near.

Many traders believe that the e-commerce giants are abusing their buying power and are controlling over their inventories from their affiliated vendors, this allows them to make an unfair marketplace where they can control their prices and discounts being offered in some products. These are the few things that will be stopped under the new e-retail rules.

The new e-retail rules will make the e-retailers to change their business structures and will make them raise their compliance costs.

Amazon India said that they are committed to remaining compliant to all the laws in India, adding that all official sellers should make their own decisions of what and when to list their products.

All the exclusive deals will be discontinued with their sellers.

There is no specific time table for how long will this rule will last.