Authorities must solve pending cases against e-commerce companies before others

Editorial Desk :
As many as 19,623 complaints against 50 e-commerce companies involving about Tk 600 crore filed with the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) are pending, leaving the customers in a state of limbo over their money. Of them, 16,204 pending complainants are against E-valy, Alesha Mart, E-orange, Dhamaka Shopping and Qcoom, companies that are as good as being defunct.
The highest number of complaints of 10,978 have been filed against E-valy, followed by E-orange 6,017, Alesha Mart 2,157 and Dhamaka Shopping 618 as of February. But since December last year, Alesha Mart has stopped all communication with the DNCRP. The High Court-constituted E-valy board is yet to respond to the DNCRP’s repeated communication over the settlement of consumers’ complaints. Some of the companies have taken the matter to the court. Until the court gives a verdict, DNCRP cannot do anything. The owners of E-orange, Dhamaka Shopping, RingID and Dalal Plus have left Bangladesh. At present, the ministry is paying the consumers from the money stuck in the payment gateways. About Tk 525 crore of 27 e-commerce companies were stuck in the payment gateway. After verification, Tk 361 crore was refunded to customers. Cases filed against those e-commerce companies will be resolved through the legal process. The errant e-commerce companies’ e-CAB membership has been suspended.

As much as 70 per cent of the 1,097 complaints filed by consumers against Qcoom have been resolved to be under unbearable pressure while the big and government favoured companies remaining safe and untouched. It’s known to all that income officials have the power, if the higher authorities so want, destroy the business of a company before it takes recourse to legal remedies available.