Amazon fined Rs 18,000 for not refunding Rs 40,000 to woman whose phone was 'hacked': What did court say?

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Chandigarh has ordered Amazon to reimburse a customer Rs 40,325 and pay a fine of Rs 18,000, which includes Rs 8,000 for litigation costs and Rs 10,000 for mental anguish and harassment. The decision came after a complaint alleging that Amazon had sold a lady a "hacked" phone that she then used for unauthorized transactions.

According to a Times of India report, the woman Samita Das, a resident of Sector 12, Chandigarh, purchased a smartphone via Amazon. Fraudsters gained access to her personal data in September 2023, compromised her credit card and email address from ICICI Bank, and made unauthorized transactions from her Amazon account.

Das tried to reject the transactions and notify Amazon of the questionable activities, but the business did not move promptly. The business processed certain orders without doing adequate verification, which resulted in charges being made to the customer's Amazon Pay Later account, while other transactions were canceled.

"The act of demand made it clear that Amazon Retail India and Amazon Pay Later have not refunded the amount, and the amount collected has been illegally retained by them despite numerous refund requests," Das claimed.

In response to the consumer commission, Amazon India and Amazon Pay Later (the payment platform) stated that they have canceled the fraudulent purchases. They also said that they gave the lady "appropriate and efficient assistance."

Amazon responded to the commission by saying, "After the complaint contacted our customer service team, all of the orders that had been placed were canceled, and the complainant received appropriate and effective help about the cancelled items. Given the complainant's complaint that her account was compromised, they checked internally right away and helped the complainant sanitize/suppress her account and ensure all orders were cancelled to avoid any further issues."

"The payment made into the nodal account is not a payment made to them herein," Amazon further explained, according to a report by Indian Express. "The nodal account is maintained and audited by a bank recognized for such purpose by the RBI, not by them. They cannot do business on the aforementioned nodal account at will without limitations because they are neither the account holder nor the owner of the account."

Online platforms often require that a product, in particular, be extensively checked by the collecting agent before being picked up at the time of return. The product is only picked up after it is determined to be identical to the one that was delivered. The collection agency never picks up the merchandise in the event of a discrepancy. Furthermore, the commission stated that this plea appeared to be an afterthought of Amazon Retail India and was never discussed with the complainant at any point.
 

• Amazon
• Amazon Retail
• Consumer court
• ICICI Bank
• RBI