Flipkart cracks whip on fake discounts; suspends seller who inflated the price by 50%

India's leading e-commerce portal Flipkart has suspended and blacklisted sellers who had arbitrarily hiked the price of the product before tagging the product with a generous discount.
The latest controversy involving the fast-growing Flipkart has raised concerns over the quality and inflated price of products sold on e-commerce portals. In the past, Flipkart had received a lot of brickbats, especially during its much touted 'Big Billion Day' sale.

In a response to dna, Flipkart said it investigated the incident, and after receiving the full report suspended the sellers.

According to a Flipkart customer, the seller doubled the cost of a pair of ladies' sandals before offering the same product at a discount of 50%. He alleged that Flipkart had displayed the price of the sandals as Rs 799 and highlighted its '50%' discount available on the pair of sandals. Everything was good, only if they hadn't forgotten to remove the original price (Rs 399) from the strap of the sandal.

The article, carried by dna's website, along with images of the product on sale from the customer's Facebook post, went viral on Saturday, forcing Facebook to swing into action.

"Flipkart is a marketplace which helps sellers connect with customers across the country. We adopt a zero tolerance policy towards any instances where the seller has sold a product above the MRP stated on the label. When found in violation of our policy, sellers are suspended and further blacklisted. Flipkart takes utmost care in ensuring that product information on the marketplace is not misleading and for this, we rely on our sellers to share correct information with us," the company said in its response to dna.

The development also raises concerns over the inability of e-commerce companies to control their marketplace where sellers sell their wares directly to customers on a platform provided by the portal. "As thousands of sellers sell their products/wares on the marketplace, the model is prone to such illegal activities. E-commerce players need to be extra vigilant to avoid such unscrupulous elements tarnishing their image," says an industry official.

dna had recently reported on new e-commerce portals offering prescription drugs online despite the controversy over Snapdeal selling such medicines illegally on its marketplace. The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration had recently cracked down on e-marketplaces including Snapdeal for selling medicines online. However, this has not deterred entrepreneurs looking to make a mark in the online space.

The latest to join the bandwagon is former iGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy-promoted PM Health and Life Care, which is set to launch an e-venture for selling pharmaceutical products online. It however maintains that the medicine would be sold only to those customers who produce a genuine prescription.