BIS Raids Amazon, Flipkart Warehouses For 15 Hours, Seizes 3,500+ Uncertified Fake Products

The Delhi branch of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) conducted a series of raids on Amazon and Flipkart warehouses on Thursday, seizing thousands of uncertified products.

The operation was done for over 15 hours at Amazon's warehouse in the Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Delhi, and a Flipkart subsidiary warehouse in Trinagar.

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The raid by BIS officials

The raid at Amazon's warehouse resulted confiscation of over 3,500 items, including geysers, food mixers, and various electrical appliances, which either lacked the mandatory ISI certification or carried counterfeit ISI labels. [Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB)]

The total value of the seized products is estimated to be approximately Rs 70 lakh.

Similar raids were conducted in Hyderabad weeks earlier, where BIS officials confiscated over 2,700 uncertified items, including smartwatches, electric water heaters, and CCTV cameras, that cost more than Rs.50 lakh.

BIS has already issued notices to Meesho, Myntra, and BigBasket, directing them that only BIS-certified products are sold on their platforms.

In a separate operation, BIS conducted a raid at Instakart Services Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Flipkart, in Trinagar, Delhi. The officials gathered a stockpile of sports footwear that failed to meet ISI standards and lacked proper manufacturing date details. They seized around 590 pairs of sports shoes worth Rs 6 lakh.

In December 2024, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi announced that consumer trust is essential for the growth of India's e-commerce sector. He said that online retailers must ensure accurate product descriptions and stick to certification norms.

Under Section 17 of the BIS Act, 2016, companies caught violating certification requirements could face a minimum penalty of Rs 2 lakh.

These nationwide raids conducted by BIS are to enforce quality standards. Over the past month, similar operations have been done in multiple locations, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Lucknow, and Sriperumbudur, resulting in the confiscation of loads of uncertified goods.

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