Under fire, Amazon agrees to replace fake Lakme Kajal
Tanvi Shetty 09 June 2017
Amazon’s brazen reaction to fake products sold by its online sellers has outraged consumers. An Ahmedabad based consumer activist with the Consumer Education & Research Centre (CERC), who started an online petition at change.org, has scored a significant victory with Amazon agreeing to send genuine Lakme Eyeconic Kajal free of cost to all the 340 customers of its vendor, Sublime.
 
On May 25, Moneylife wrote  about how Ms Pritee Shah, director of CERC, had created an online petition urging online stores to stop selling fake products and voluntarily recall the products for consumer safety. Amazon has called its decision a goodwill gesture, but there needs to be a policy to ensure that it stops selling fakes. So CERC has requested Amazon to issue a notice to all the customers to stop using the earlier purchased product and destroy it. 
 
Ms Shah’s petition had stated that a customer purchased Lakme Eyeconic Kajal Pack of two, from the Amazon portal, in March 2017. “The product was found to be fake as was admitted by the manufacturer Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL). Sublime, a seller on Amazon, also admitted that the product it has sold/ sent is fake. A total of 340 customers purchased Lakme Eyeconic Kajal from Amazon seller Sublime. Amazon has refunded money to only seven customers, who had complained. The Lakme Eyeconic Kajal bought from Amazon seller Sublime by these 340 customers could be fake. It could contain ingredients hazardous to your health. Are you okay with that? Obviously not. So, take action, join us in an effort to protect your Consumer Rights.”
 
The larger issue, of a regular policy to stop online market places like Amazon from selling fake products and ensuring better due diligence in choosing its re-sellers, still remains. Also, since the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has remained a silent spectator to this battle, despite full knowledge of the problem at the highest level, the company has got away without any punitive action, which would have been a key deterrent to Amazon as well as other online sellers. 
 
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