PRESIDENT, DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, SAMBALPUR

CONSUMER COMPLAINT NO.- 88/2022

Present-Dr. Ramakanta Satapathy, President,

  Sri. Sadananda Tripathy, Member

 S.Siba Prasad,

 S/o:- S.Narayan Murty, At:- Fatak,

 PO:- Budharaja, City/Dist-Sambalpur

 Odisha-768104.                                                       ……….......Complainant.

Vrs.

1.       Amit Agrawal, India Head

          Amamzon India(Amazon.In)

          Brigade Gateway, Eighth floor

          16/1, Dr. Rajkumar Road,

          Malleswaram, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560055

2.       Israr Ahemad, Amber Handicraft,

          Rampur Road, Near Kings Marble,

          Roorkee, Uttarakhand-247667, India      . …....……….Opp. Parties

Counsels:-

1. For the Complainant         :-       Sri. P.P.Panigrahi Advocate
2. For the O.P. No.1               :-       Sri. A.K.Sahoo, Advocate & Associates
3. For the O.P. No. 2              :-       Ex-parte

Date of Filing:21.11.2022,     Date of Hearing :09.05.2023,     Date of Judgement : 05.06.2023

Presented by Sri Sadananda Tripathy, Member.

1. The Brief fact of the Complainant is that the Complainant in order to decorate his home had placed prepaid Rs. 18,080/- order for 12 lamps on 02.09.2022 with the OP No. 1 who in turn was to supply through its vendor OP. They dispatched 12 items on 3^rd Sep, 2022 out of which one is broken. This fact was reported to the OP NO. 1 with request to take back the item and they assured for refund vide its email dt. 09.09.2022 but they neither refunded nor sent again the items ordered for and prepaid for in spite of collecting the defective item. This misdemeanor of OPs have caused mental agony, harassment and inconvenience to the Complainant apart from financial loss due to money not refunded and hiring of legal expert for redressal of this matter for which the OPs are liable to make good the loss.

2. The Written Version of the O.P No. 1 is that upon receipt of the present complaint, the answering OP duly escalated into this issue wherein it was found out that the refund was not issued by the Independent Third Party seller due to some reasons. Even though the refund was to be processed by the Independent Third Party Seller and the answering OP had nothing to do with the refund, the answering OP is ready and willing to refund the product amount to the Complainant. As upon enquiry it was found out that the refund was not processed. The answering OP is ready and willing to refund the product amount having a customer oriented approach. The onus of proof of deficiency is solely upon the Complainant and not on an intermediary, such as the answering OP. The OP relied upon some case law regarding the same. The answering OP merely provides an e-commerce marketplace for the transaction of sale that takes place between the independent third-party sellers and buyers. The Clause 13 of the conditions of use states that the answering OP is not liable, in any manner whatsoever, for performance of the sale agreement executed by and between the buyer and seller on the e-commerce marketplace as the agreement of sale is entered solely by and between the buyer and seller. The answering OP has no role to play in the same. As per Section. 79 of the IT Act, the answering OP being an intermediary, is not liable for any information/material/warranties/representations made by the independent Third-party sellers on the e-commerce marketplace.

3. From pleading of both the parties it is clear that O.P. No.2 has sold the product through O.P. No.1 market place. The O.P. No.1 not works for charity. Both the seller and buyer pay for the services provided by the O.P. No.1. It can not take the benefit of Section 79 of the I. Technology Act, 2000 for the services.

                                      ORDER

The case is allowed on contest. The O.Ps are jointly & severally liable to refund the amount to the Complainant of Rs. 18,080/- with 18% which was paid by the Complainant at the time order of the product, Rs. 200,000/- towards mental agony, deficiency in service to the Complainant as Compensation and Rs. 20,000/- towards cost & litigation expenses to the Complainant within 30 days from the date of order, failing which the amount will further carry with 9% interest per annum till realization to the complainant.

Order pronounced in the open Court today on 5^th day of June, 2023.

Free copies of this order to the parties are supplied.