Government tightens e-commerce rules on discounts, search and sponsored offers | Today’s news

New Delhi: E-commerce platforms will face tougher obligations on how they display discounts, rank search results and identify sponsored listings under new government rules aimed at strengthening consumer protection and improving transparency in digital markets.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has revised the consumer protection rules for e-commerce and introduced the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) (Amendment) Rules, 2026, it said in a statement on Thursday. The new rules will replace the Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules 2020. They provide a framework to protect consumers from unfair business practices in the e-commerce industry.

The government has introduced specific requirements for how platforms display prices and search results. “If an e-commerce entity announces a price reduction, it will have to list both the reduced price and the previous price. The rules define the previous price as the lowest price at which the goods or services were offered during the 30 days prior to the announcement,” he said.

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E-commerce entities will also be prohibited from manipulating search results in a manner that misleads the user or adversely affects the relevance of the results to the user’s search query.

“With changing consumer shopping habits and the expanding scope of e-commerce, it has become important to strengthen the regulatory framework to address emerging challenges in the digital marketplace,” said Nidhi Khare, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs.

“The new norms seek to increase transparency, accountability and consumer protection while ensuring a balanced regulatory environment for the growth of the e-commerce sector,” Khare said.

An executive from the leading e-commerce platform told Mint that the company is analyzing the changes and is not yet in a position to comment on them. Queries sent to Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance Retail, Zomato, Zepto, Tanishq and BigBasket spokespersons on Thursday evening remained unanswered till press time.

The new rules will come into effect on January 1, 2027, and the amendments introduce more specific requirements for e-commerce entities regarding consumer complaints, price disclosure, search results, sponsored listings, dark patterns and seller information.

According to a February 2026 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, the additions are significant as India’s e-commerce market is expected to grow from around US$140 billion currently to as much as US$300 billion by 2030. The number of online shoppers is also expected to grow from 280–300 million in 2025 to 420–440 million by 2030.

According to experts, the amendments bring more specificity to the obligations of e-commerce platforms, especially in areas such as price disclosure, sponsored listings, search rankings and dark patterns.

“This is significant from a consumer protection and regulatory perspective, as the amendments seek to bring greater transparency and accountability to digital practices that can influence consumer choice. Clearer disclosure of pricing, sponsored listings and search results, along with stricter compliance requirements, should provide greater transparency to consumers while imposing more clearly defined obligations on e-commerce entities,” said Vijay Kumar, partner at law firm Fox Mandal.

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The new rules come at a time when e-commerce-related complaints account for a significant proportion of consumer complaints. During 2025, the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) received 17,71,622 complaints, of which 5,11,196, or around 29%, were related to the e-commerce sector, according to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

A key change in the revised rules requires every e-commerce entity to become a partner in the NCH convergence process, thereby strengthening the integration of e-commerce platforms with the national consumer grievance redressal mechanism.

Under the amended rules, every e-commerce entity will also have to provide a copy of the complaint recorded by its complaint officer to the complainant. The aim of this provision is to give consumers better insight into how their complaints have been recorded and dealt with.

As part of another measure aimed at improving transparency in online shopping, sponsored listings will have to be identified through clear and prominent information.

The amended rules also tighten requirements on dark patterns, which refer to practices in digital interfaces that can influence or manipulate consumer choice, and they will have to comply with the 2023 Dark Patterns Prevention and Regulation Guidelines, carry out an annual self-audit and visibly display a certificate of compliance.

The amendments seek to address emerging concerns of consumers in the digital marketplace while addressing the need for ease of doing business and a balanced approach that protects consumer interests without imposing unnecessary regulatory burdens on e-commerce entities, the ministry said.

E-commerce marketplace entities will need to provide consumers with key information about sellers and products to enable informed purchasing decisions. This will include information such as best before/use by dates, return and refund terms, warranty, delivery and payment details.

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For imported goods, the platforms will also have to disclose details of the importer and country of origin, the company said.

The rules further state that e-commerce marketplace entities cannot use consumer information for specified purposes without express consent.

Marketplace platforms will also be prohibited from charging service fee packages unrelated to the e-commerce platform, subject to a specified exception for loyalty or membership programs.