Price Transparency on E-Commerce Platforms: Regulation of Drip-Pricing under Indian Consumer Law

The fast-paced development of the internet has led to the emergence of a huge online shopping environment which in turn provides a broader variety of products to consumers and at the same time, makes them a bit vulnerable, with one of the main drawbacks being the non-transparent prices and misleading marketing practices. One of the most used practice is drip pricing in which the seller, while attracting the customer, advertises products and services at low price hiding additional costs of delivery, handling, surcharges, and taxes etc until later in the purchase process, which in effect, deprives the Right to be Informed of consumer, where it is stated that proper and complete disclosure of price and product characteristics is compulsory. To this, India increased the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 with the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which made it mandatory for the e-commerce companies and the sellers to not only show the total price including a detailed breakup of obligatory and optional charges. The courts have interpreted that undisclosed fees and fake discounts constitute unfair trade practices, and made the platforms liable to regulatory and civil remedies. However, through all these solid legal structures that have been put in place, there are still practical drawbacks such as: varying disclosure formats, complicated legal language, choice of platform design, and pricing techniques that use algorithms, all these continue to make it hard to see clearly at the decision-making point. The paper intends to conduct a doctrinal and functional analysis of the current regulations, enforcement activities, and platform adherence to determine their effectiveness in eradicating hidden costs.