It is most shocking media news for the traders & the people of India that Marijuana worth more than 1 crore of rupees was sold through Amazon e-commerce portal and in turn Amazon got 66 percent commission.
This sensational revelation was uncovered by Madhya Pradesh police. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) while demanding immediate action of the Central Government also demanded that Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) should take action against Amazon since it acted as seller, collected money, posted on their website, earned commission and did much more than what has been alleged to be done by Aaryan Khan.
CAIT National President Mr B C Bhartia & Secretary General Mr Praveen Khandelwal said that before registering a seller, Amazon ought to have done KYC to know about the genuiness and credit ability of the seller. Further, Amazon ought not to have allowed sale of illegal items like Marijuana. Further, we are at loss to understand the why a technology giant does not use its Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Machine Learning(ML) to identify sale of illegal items while they continue to use these technologies to identify and copy the products of poor MSMEs and Indian Manufactures for creating their own private label products.
Government and law enforcement agencies including NCB need to take an immediate action and initiate criminal proceedings against Amazon and its top management for this illegality. If marijuana can be sold through their portal then they would be encouraged to trade in illegal supply of arms or other anti- national activists and money laundering.
Amazon had been claiming to be an intermediary under the Information Technology Act and therefore had been seeking the benefit of safe harbour provisions. However, by allowing any seller to sell a banned/illegal item like Marijuana, accepting payments, facilitating and assuring delivery and consequently earning profits in the form of sales commission, they cannot be called an e-commerce intermediary by any stretch of imagination.
Mr Bhartia & Mr Khandelwal said that the CAIT raising its strong voice against the violation of rules & policies by Amazon since 2016 but it is deeply regretted that so far no action has been taken which has boosted their law violating practices to a great extent. It is an admitted fact that foreign funded companies are treating India as a banana republic where they can twist the laws and policies in their favour any time.
