Govt Might Soon Crack Down On Amazon & Flipkart's Pricing Strategy To Protect Indian Traders

India's e-commerce sector has had a pretty free run so far. That means they've been able to woo regular customers like us with all the cashback offers, discounts, and flash sales they can think up. But that may soon be coming to an end.

The central government has reportedly rekindled its plans to tighten the leash on online marketplaces. They want to impose checks on the number and scale of their offers, and to stop them using that clout to push domestic sellers out of the market.

While customers like us can enjoy some serious discounts during the festive season for instance, local retailers are seriously hit by the sales shift to online. Not only do they not have the same marketing and logistics networks as giants like Flipkart and Amazon India, they also can't compete with the seriously low profit margins the latter can afford.

In fact, a few local traders attempted to lash out at Amazon India during Diwali, attempting to have their area code blacklisted by mass-submitting and cancelling fake orders.

Internal sources in the government told The Times of India that the centre is considering how to reign in e-commerce players. However, officials seem to insist it's not a move specifically to protect local retailers, but rather in anticipation of such a demand at the WTO.

Earlier in July, a think-tank that had been employed to build a framework for dealing with this issue, submitted their proposal. At the time however, it was scrapped within days of being shared with those involved. Now, it seems one of that proposal's points may be back on the table. It specified a maximum duration for which deep discounts could be active.

So you might not be able to rely on Diwali discounts for that new phone next year.