PACKAGED COMMODITIES AMENDMENT RULES, 2017 - NOTIFIED

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Department of Consumer Affairs, exercising the power conferred by sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 52 of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 (1 of 2010), have amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011.

With this amendment, Ministry of Consumer Affairs has tried their best to match the pace & requirement of the law with not only the Retail or Wholesale industry but also the E-commerce buying & selling market too.

However, few provisions like the provision of “Complete Address” exhibits the confusion in the mind of lawmaker because the situation has been restored again in line with the original legislation.

It’s the first time since the law was made, the Department of Consumer Affairs has highlighted the need of protection of consumer from differential pricing in packaged commodity (products like bread and milk are allowed to be sold at different prices in different states) through Package Commodities Rules by including the provisions of Restrictive Trade Practices or Unfair Trade Practice in the Law.

Further, Ecommerce Companies have been brought under the scanner of the Department of Consumer Affairs and have prescribed the packaging compliances and the person responsible for the same under the Rules.

Below are the highlights of the important changes in the Package Commodities Rules:

a.   These rules may be called as the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules,  2017.

b.     They shall come into force on the 1st day of January 2018.

c.     Definition of Institutional Consumer has been simplified and corrected.

d.   Definition of Consumer has been prescribed under the Act which shall be in line with Consumer  Protection Act, 1986.

e.    E-commerce entities have been brought under the coverage of the Act.

f.   Much awaited confusion with the Customs declaration has been clarified by the Government by making the provision of declaring “Country of Origin” on all imported packages. Finally, there is no requirement to refer to the repealed provisions of Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958.

g.   The manner of writing Retail Sale Price on the Packaged Commodity including the provisions of rounding off have been clubbed and prescribed in the rules.

h.  Department has clarified that the declarations related to Bar Coding, E-coding or Government logos are permitted on the package in the prescribed manner. However, Rule 4 is broader in scope in comparison to Rule 4A (New Rule) which will raise the confusion after the Rules comes into force.

i.    In respect of E-commerce entities, liabilities of compliance under the rules have been fixed on the Ecommerce entities. However, in few cases like where E-commerce entity is a mere a channel or a hosting provider or is only facilitating the transmission of data etc., Ecommerce entity shall not lie under the bracket of compliance under the Package Commodities Rules.

j.   The provision related to height and width of the characters and numerals declared on the package have been modified. However, it is still a matter of confusion whether all details like characters and numbers used in declaring customer care, address etc. shall comply with these rules.

k. The provision related to fine and charges for compounding of offenses under Rule 32 has been modified.

l.   New prohibition related to declaration of MRP has been introduced to curb the practice of declaring different MRP by manufacturer, packer or importer in different or similar markets for identical products.

However, the manner or rules for defining the product as an identical product have not been provided under the Rules.

For detailed analysis or specific queries on the Act and Rules or in designing compliant packaging please write to us at:

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