View: Why e-tailers are upset over India’s new draft e-commerce rules

What are the big takeaways from draft rules?

First, new draft rules were not issued by commerce and industry ministry. Consumer affairs ministry issuing the draft, and ‘explaining’ that proposed rules deal with ‘unfair’ trade practices that hurts customers, may be an attempt to give this intervention a gentler avatar. That is, make draft rules appear to not be a product of online-offline battle.

Second, unlike the last set of e-commerce rules issued by the commerce ministry, this draft doesn’t distinguish between foreign and domestic e-commerce. So, new rules, if adopted, will apply to Amazon and Flipkart as well as to, say, Reliance’s and Tata’s e-commerce ventures.