Amazon fined ₹1 lakh over misleading ‘Ram Mandir Prasad’ sweets listing

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a penalty of ₹1 lakh on Amazon Seller Services Private Limited for allowing ordinary sweets to be sold on its platform as “Shri Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad”, without any approval from the Ram Temple Trust.

According to Bar and Bench, the CCPA noted that devotees would, by default, consider the 'Shri Ram Mandir Ayodhya Prasad' as the food offered to and blessed by the deity. The penalty must be deposited within 15 days, it said.

“The commercial appropriation of this phrase for ordinary confectionery products, without any authorisation from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, constitutes not just a misleading trade practice under the CP Act but an affront to the religious sentiments of crores of consumers,” the order said.

The order was passed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra on August 4, following a complaint by the Confederation of All India Traders in January 2024.

The CCPA also said Amazon was party to the publication of misleading advertisements since it hosted, displayed and facilitated the sale of the products, and it could not claim safe harbour protection available to intermediaries under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act (IT Act).

The complaint mentioned four varieties of sweets listed by Chandu Trading Company under the brand Bihar Brothers, mainly ghee ladoos, khoya ladoos, boondi ladoos and cow milk pedas.