Questions for 2020: Ecommerce gets caught up in rules?

An industry desperately looking for clarity. India’s ecommerce industry, estimated to be worth over $ 50 billion, remains enmeshed in regulatory flux. With the final word yet to be said on the National Ecommerce Policy, separate guidelines have been drafted by different ministries on issues such as consumer protection and data privacy confounding an industry in search of regulatory clarity.

Hopes of a stable policy framework had gained ground in June, when commerce minister Piyush Goyal said India would have a comprehensive ecommerce policy within a year.

This followed months of upheaval triggered by new rules specifying that FDI-funded marketplaces could only lend their platforms to third-party sellers and barred such entities from holding any stocks or selling their own goods directly to customers.