e-commerce
CAIT demands 7-day ban on Amazon for not indicating country of origin
NEW DELHI: Expressing dissatisfaction with the Rs 25,000 penalty levied on Amazon India by the ministry of consumer affairs, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded a seven-day ban on the e-commerce giant for not providing the mandatory details of 'country of origin' on the products sold on the platform.
For the record, the ministry of consumer affairs last month sent a notice directing e-commerce portals to clearly display country of origin on products listed on their websites. However, Amazon and Flipkart were found to be non-compliant, and the former was fined Rs 25,000 for it.
CAIT has said that the fundamental of levying the fine is to make offenders realise their fault so they do not commit the same offence again.
“However, the paltry monetary penalty has no significance at all and it is demanded that a seven-day ban on Amazon and other big ecommerce companies who are continuously offending the law and policies, should be imposed on them… Let there be an exemplary punishment," CAIT wrote in a statement.
CAIT national president BC Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said that imposing such a small fine on a foreign e-commerce giant for violating Indian law is nothing but a mockery of our judicial and administrative system.
"The punishment should be equal to the damage caused by them on our economy and it should have reflected a clear message to the foreign e-commerce players," they said.
Bhartia and Khandelwal added that in the wake of the magnitude of e-commerce business in India and PM Narendra Modi’s call for ‘vocal for local’ and Atmanirbhar Bharat, the description of the country of origin is now mandatory and for disobeying this law for the first time, the relevant ecommerce portal should be banned for seven days, for second offence, it should be banned for 15 days and for third offence, the portal should be banned till the time it complies fully with the law.
They insisted that a fine or penalty should always be exemplary and be in proportion to the offence committed. Having this yardstick as the barometer, the fine of a token amount of Rs 25,000 is more like compromising with the law.
Further, they claimed that there is some vested interest behind the continuous violation of the Indian law by these ecommerce companies and hence, the fine imposed needs to be steep.
"Law should be equal for everybody and other ecommerce players (Flipkart, Myntra) should also face the heat for flouting rules. We are unable to understand why they were not fined. Such an indecisive attitude of the authorities towards the foreign e-commerce players is quite unreasonable," they added.
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
