Mumbai: A city consumer court has directed Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd.  and publisher to pay compensation of Rs 10,000 for mental agony and Rs 5000 for legal expenses to a buyer who had purchased a book from the online portal. The consumer had approached the court, as the book he had bought was of MRP of Rs 525, but it was sold to him above the MRP even after a discount of 69 per cent.

Surendra Pawar had approached the Consumer court at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) against Amazon and USB Publishers saying they sold a book to him above the maximum retail price. The matter was heard and decided by a bench comprising members S.V. Kalal and Shivcharan Shere.

Mr Pawar contended that he had purchased a book called “Legal drafting – do it yourself” because the online selling portal had claimed that it was giving this book for whopping discount of 69 per cent and due to this discount, the book valued Rs 1,595 was up for grab with the discount of Rs 1,093.

However, when Mr Pawar received the book he noticed that the original value of boom was Rs 525 and not Rs 1,595. He then shot a mail to the web portal complaining about the same and alleged that he was misled about the amount of book and discount.

Amazon in reply to Mr Pawar’s mail said that its role is only limited to information of products up for sale on its website for consumers. Following this, Mr Pawar approached the court and also included the publisher as a respondent.

However, the publisher didn’t appear before the bench. After hearing arguments from both the sides, the bench observed that misleading information about discount on sale of book was published on defendant’s web portal till November 17, 2017. It also noted that even though the defendant is not responsible for the sale of the book, the web portal as a guarantee had published “100 per cent purchase protection”.

The members of the Consumer forum also stated that the bench is of the opinion that Amazon was responsible for what was published on its website especially at a time when it has not complained against publishers for putting up misleading information about sale of the book on its web portal. Furthermore, though the publisher was not present before the forum, considering the bill issued to the purchaser the bench held the publisher equally responsible for selling the book by giving misleading information.

With above observations, the bench directed Amazon and the publisher to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to Pawar for mental agony and Rs 5000 for legal expenses within 30 days.