Latest Updates on E-Commerce and Licensing – October 2021- Part I

This is a rundown of last week’s news updates on E-Commerce and Licensing

The rules are meant to serve for a long time, said the commerce and industry minister, Piyush Goyal. The comment came after it was reported that several government agencies had voiced their concerns over the proposed consumer protection guidelines for e-commerce. “I have to protect everybody’s interest and balance consumer interest, e-commerce (players’) interests, retailers’ interests. Everybody’s interest will be taken into consideration and a balanced and a very robust policy will be finalised… Longer and detailed consultation, better will be the policy,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said. The Minister stated the examples of the proposed data privacy law, National Education Policy and hallmarking standards for jewellery, where a strong policy framework has been created after detailed stakeholder consultations.

Demand from smaller towns and cities is high according to the Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal. Flipkart said it has close to 45% of customer demand coming from tier 3 cities and beyond. There was an increase in sellers getting orders from tier- 2 and 3 cities, according to Amazon India. This year, smartphones and electronics continued to dominate buyers’ carts. The home and electronics category was the top seller with one in five customers changing their phones to a laptop or television. The Great Indian Festival sale on Amazon had more orders from sellers than in the same period a year ago. This year, The Big Billion Days sale has started off seeing upbeat participation by customers and sellers. E-commerce is clearly gaining increasing acceptance among the masses, and it is evident that user-friendly tech and financial constructs are helping to drive its adoption,” said Nandita Sinha, vice-president – customer and growth, Flipkart. “We will continue to do what we do best—offer products that deliver the best value and introduce features and solutions that make our platform more accessible and affordable,” she added.

In accordance with the newly announced RBI rules, Visa has launched Card-on-File (CoF) tokenization services in India. CoF tokenization substitutes encrypted digital tokens for actual card data, which is subsequently used to ease and authenticate transactions. The service is currently accessible on various ecommerce platforms like Grofers, big basket and MakeMyTrip. It’s a good example of a program that offers security for consumers & ecosystem ,as well as an improved checkout experience. “Having launched CoF tokenization services in over 130 countries globally, we are confident of the technology’s ability to build a safe, secure and seamless environment for digital payments,” TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, stated.

Apple is accused of using improper methods to reduce its royalty rates for licensing of 5G wireless patents. On Monday, a lawsuit was filed in Marshall, Texas. According to a statement published by Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson, the two companies are at talks over a new license. Apple did not reply  to a request for comment. Ericsson claims that when Apple initially introduced the iPhone, it began licensing its wireless patents to the company. During talks for a new license, Apple sued Ericsson in 2015. Apple claimed that the patents at issue were not necessary and that it did not infringe on them.

Over 90,000 California licensees can log onto the Licensing Services Portal to receive online services provided by The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). Renewal charges can be paid online with a credit card or an eCheck. The payment process should take less than a few minutes and it is easy to use. Other online licensing services will be developed and made available when they are completed.