Amazon India yesterday announced that it will introduce “country of origin” as a mandatory attribute in its category listings. It also told sellers that failure to provide the country of origin attribute by August 10 “may lead to enforcement action, including suppression of your listing”.
"Starting from July 21, 2020, we are introducing 'country of origin' as a mandatory attribute in addition to a few optional attributes in our category listing templates in accordance with the Legal Metrology Act, 2009," Amazon said.
“We urge you to provide information on the other listing attributes (including mandatory declarations required to be provided by you under applicable law) so that customers get detailed information about your product prior to purchase," the e-commerce company said on its seller dashboard.
The move comes a few days after ecommerce portals in India, including Amazon and archrival Flipkart, held multiple meetings with the Indian government over the issue of marking which country the goods were produced in as anti-China sentiments run high in the country.
The Indian government has already mandated its online marketplace, GeM, to enter the country of origin while registering new products following rising tensions with China following a border clash in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control on June 20 that led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers.