Existing laws need to be amended while new ones formulated to establish a robust system of clear, enforceable rules creating obligations on e-commerce platforms to adhere to a set of uniform rules on payment and delivery.

A substantial number of consumers and merchants are currently in a desperate bid to recover advance payments, purchases and supplies from some dubious e-commerce platforms.

For the time being, legal experts have recommended registering complaints with the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP).

If that bears no fruit, they suggest filing fraudulence cases under the digital security act and the penal code. But the concern lies in the inadequacies in existing laws for consumer protection.

The redress issue comes to the fore as law enforcement agencies recently arrested Evaly Chairman Shamima Nasrin and Managing Director Mohammad Rassel on embezzlement charges.

Rapid Action Battalion on September 17 said the company's liabilities amounted to over Tk 1,000 crore.

The digital commerce platform in a submission to the commerce ministry last month said its liabilities to customers and vendors amounted to Tk 544 crore, including Tk 311 crore owed to more than 2 lakh customers.

"Cases of fraud, misrepresentation etc may be remedied with recourse to the punitive laws like – the Penal Code, 1860, the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, the Digital Security Act, 2018 etc," Sayeeda Anju, a professor of law at the University of Rajshahi.

"But existing provisions enunciated in these laws may not suffice to deal with offences relating to e-commerce operations," she said.

"At first the customers can go to the DNCRP and since it's extrajudicial, it can't go to take criminal action. So when the situation worsens and the customers cannot preserve their rights with the DNCRP complaints, they can sue under digital security act 18," she added.

However, there is no prompt remedy for business related matters in the existing legal frameworks, she said.

For example, if an e-commerce operator is charged with fraudulence under the penal code, 1860 for breach of online contract or for commission of fraudulent act online, the prosecution will have difficulty in proving the ingredients of the offence, said Anju.

This is because provisions of online transactions are yet to be incorporated in the relevant sections of the laws concerned, she added.

She said The Digital Commerce Operations Guidelines, 2021 do not contain any express provision for the protection of the rights of the sellers.

However, they can seek remedy under the provision of Contract Act, 1872 or through the Sale of Goods Act, 1930, neither of which have been updated in a long time, she said.

Therefore, for expeditious disposal of commercial disputes raised both by buyer and seller, the government may mull over enacting separate legislation and establishment of separate specialised courts in the country, according to Anju.

Out of over a dozen companies being investigated by the government, three, namely Evaly, Dhamaka and Eorange, account for most of the thousands of customers who are in despair over whether they would ever get back their money.

On September 18, suppliers to Dhamaka Shopping claimed the e-commerce platform owed Tk 200 crore to merchants, according to Dhamakashopping.com Sellers' Association.

The platform said they applied to various ministries and the central bank from July to September to receive the dues, but the efforts went in vain.

Meanwhile customers of Eorange are in uncertainties as top officials of the platform are in jail in a case filed over embezzlement of around Tk 1,100 crore.

Fazle Rabby, who paid Tk 127,000 to Evaly to buy a motorcycle at a discount alongside groceries in January, filed compliant against the ecommerce platform at the DNCRP in late August.

He is yet to get any call from the agency for a hearing.

"I appeal to the government to find a way so that we get our money back," he said yesterday.

Mohammad Golam Sarwar, an assistant professor of law at the University of Dhaka, said the primary law that deals with the redress for aggrieved consumers is the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009.

Section 45 of the 2009 Act penalises non-delivery of products, he said.

The section reads that if any person, including company, society, partnership firm, statutory or other organisation does not sell or deliver properly any goods or service promised in consideration of money, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or with a fine not exceeding Tk 50,000 or with both.

Apart from the 2009 Act, remedy of non-delivery of goods is also available under the Sale of Goods Act, 1930, he said.

Sarwar said the Digital Commerce Operation Guidelines, 2021 issued by the commerce ministry in July this year states that for orders where the price has been paid, the product must be handed over for delivery within 48 hours and must be delivered within five days within the same city, or the highest of 10 days outside the city.

It provides that the payment must be refunded within 10 days in case of failure to deliver a product and also provides that money offered as cashback cannot be retained in the digital wallet of the e-commerce platform, he said.

However, he said, the 2021 guidelines was an executive instrument.

Although the guidelines provide that those complaints may be filed under the Consumer Rights Protection Act, the 2009 law itself does not create specific requirements for timely delivery or payment refund in case of online transactions as has been done under the guidelines, he added.

"As the guidelines themselves are not legislative instruments, how far they can be enforced or applied is unclear," he said.

"Moreover, the guidelines have been put into effect on the date of publication and whether they apply to transactions preceding their enactment is a question that must be asked," he said.

Measures must be in place to ensure that such large-scale grievance is not repeated, Sarwar said.