The Ministry of Consumer Affairs received a total of 4,45,960 grievances in the e-commerce sector alone in the fiscal year 2024 (FY24). This is a steep increase compared with 4,00,509 in FY23, 2,40,866 in FY22, and 2,05,393 grievances in FY21.
Overall, the Ministry received over 12 lakh grievances in FY24, followed by 10 lakh in FY23, 7 lakh the previous fiscal and more than 6 lakh in the fiscal before.
Out of the 4.4 lakh grievances registered in FY24 in the e-commerce sector, Flipkart led the list with a staggering 1,60,857 (1.6 lakh) grievances.
The Walmart-backed e-commerce player had registered the highest number of grievances in the previous fiscals as well– 54,337 in FY21; 65,662 in FY22; and 1,53,682 in FY23.
In FY24, Flipkart was followed by Amazon with 58,875 grievances, Meesho with 20,593, and Myntra with 21,842.
Amazon, Meesho, and Myntra had been among the notable platforms with significant consumer dissatisfaction in the previous fiscals too, the Ministry shared.
In FY21, Amazon registered 20,712, followed by Myntra (8,620); in FY22 Amazon (30,376) was followed by Myntra (7,392) and Meesho (5,684); in FY23 Amazon (45,424) was followed by Meesho (22,217) and Myntra with 12,076.
The data was shared as a response to the queries raised by Member of Parliament S Venkatesan.
The common grievances registered with the Ministry include damaged or defective products, delayed deliveries, payment-specific grievances, and misleading ads.
The likes of Nykka (with 1,309 grievances), Reliance Retail (1,358), Paytm (3,974), Ajio (7,690) and Sanpdeal (1,155) were also there in the FY24 data.
The food platforms
In FY24, amongst the other food/quick-commerce delivery platforms, Swiggy topped with 9,527 grievances followed by Zomato (6,983) and Blinkit (1,244).
Swiggy had over 7,451 grievances registered to its name in FY23; 3,279 in FY22, and 1,709 in FY21.
Its rival, Zomato got 1,389 grievances registered to its name in FY21, 2,563 in FY22, and 4,277 in FY23.
The cab aggregators
Amongst the cab aggregators and online platforms, Ola Cabs had the highest number of grievances registered to its name (4,455) in FY24, followed by Uber (2,121).
In the previous fiscal, Ola Cabs registered 3,378 grievances followed by 2,346 in FY22and 1,026 in FY21.
To serve the interest of speedy justice to the end consumers, Consumer Protection Act, 2019 states that no adjournment shall ordinarily be granted by the consumer commissions unless sufficient cause is shown and the reasons for grant of adjournment have been recorded in writing by the Commission.
The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs has emerged as a single point of access to consumers across the country for their grievance redressal at a prelitigation stage.
Consumers can register their grievances from all over the country in 17 languages through a toll-free number 1915.
These grievances can be registered on Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni-channel IT enabled central portal, through various channels- WhatsApp, SMS , mail ,NCH app, web portal, Umang app as per their convenience.