To grow its digital economy, Bangladesh needs better legal remedies for online shoppers

Just as e-commerce has made it easier for people to shop, there are also newer challenges facing consumers. Often, customers receive items that are defective or which they purchased but never received. They may see advertisements which are misleading and rarely receive refunds. Such instances are further complicated by the fact that legal remedies available for consumers vary across regions in Bangladesh due to insufficient or unclear consumer protection laws.

The main channel for ensuring consumer protection is the Consumers’ Right Protection Act, 2009. This law provides consumers with protection against unfair business practices, but relies primarily on the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection (DNCRP) for law enforcement rather than consumers’ own right to take action based on the law. Usually, consumers cannot file independent lawsuits seeking compensation from a business, because complaints filed with regulators only lead to an investigation and administrative fine, not an individual consumer’s compensation.

As more and more consumers shop online, recent examples demonstrate how difficult it is for those who do not receive the products they paid for to get a refund because the system for resolving disputes with businesses over online sales is deficient. This is a universal problem, but many nations have adopted separate laws for regulating e-commerce platforms and ensuring consumer redress.

In India, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 recognises e-commerce transactions and enables the Indian government to enforce the act through the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2019. According to these rules, online marketplaces are required to appoint grievance officers to manage consumer complaints, acknowledge consumer complaints within 48 hours, and resolve consumer complaints within 30 days from the date they were received. The e-commerce platform in question will also be required to provide consumers with specific seller information, refund and return policy details, and delivery conditions prior to the completion of the purchase. As a result of these provisions, consumers have access to a defined process for liabilities, which allows them to pursue a resolution when an issue arises during an online transaction.

Furthermore, there are many legal protections available to consumers online in the European Union thanks to the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU. Under this directive, online shoppers in the EU have 14 days from the time of a completed purchase to withdraw from said purchase without needing to provide a reason and in turn receive a full refund. Sellers are also required to provide clear and accurate information about product characteristics, prices, delivery methods, and frequency of delivery, as well as how to withdraw from an online purchase. These legal protections help provide increased levels of transparency to consumers, which in turn increases consumers’ level of confidence when making online purchases.

In the US, consumer protection laws are enforced by both the federal government and also each of the 50 states. The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) prohibits deceptive marketing of merchandise over the internet, including but not limited to hiding subscription charges and publishing misleading advertisements. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has regulations in place to protect consumers from fraud and other unethical business practices. Consumers who believe they have been victimised may seek relief through chargebacks on their credit cards, or through lawsuits against sellers.

E-commerce laws across much of the world have developed clear, specific ways of dealing with consumer rights issues to provide an avenue of direct relief for consumers. Bangladesh could create a stronger legal environment for consumer protection by adding specific e-commerce regulations to the existing Consumers’ Right Protection Act, 2009, such as requiring e-commerce platforms to provide complainants with channels for filing grievances and information related to all e-commerce vendors selling through said platform.

Last year, the interim government had moved to amend the Consumers’ Right Protection Act in response to incidents of large-scale e-commerce fraud. The current government carrying this forward would help create an ideal environment by adopting global best practices in terms of ensuring consumer protection. Without additional regulations, the growth of the digital economy in Bangladesh may decrease due to a loss of consumer confidence in e-commerce channels.

Nafiur Rahman Naypurno is undergraduate student of the Department of Law at North South University (NSU).

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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