Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) Imposes Penalty of Rs 2 Lakh on FirstCry

• 27 Sep 2025
• 527 Views

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined M/s Digital Age Retail Pvt. Ltd. (FirstCry) with Rs. 2,00,000 for false and deceptive price representations. The order has been passed under Sections 10, 20 and 21 of Consumer Protection Act 2019.

Against M/s Digital Age Retail Pvt. Ltd. (FirstCry), CCPA issued an order for publishing misleading advertisements and partaking in unfair trade practices on its e-commerce platform (www.firstcry.com). A consumer complaint had given the rise to the matter. 

According to the complaint, FirstCry displayed products with the representation of “MRP” inclusive of all taxes. However, at the checkout stage, an additional GST was levied on the discounted price. Due to this, a misleading impression of higher discounts had been created. As a result, consumers were misled regarding the final payable amount.

Supported by data from National Consumer Helpline, the investigation showed that practice of marketing discounts on MRP but separately charging GST on discounted price majorly reduced the consumer benefit. For e.g., a product advertised with 27% discount was effectively sold at 18.2% discount after applying GST.

Such representations led to deceptive pricing and misleading advertisements under Section 2(28) and unfair trade practices under Section 2(47). It was discovered that disclaimers like “additional charges may apply” or “GST and Additional Charges may apply on discounted price” did not override statutory requirement that MRP must be inclusive of all taxes.

The company was involved in drip pricing via representation of price as tax inclusive and then levying GST during checkout. Drip pricing is a dark pattern that misleads consumers about the final payable amount and undermines informed decision-making. Such practice contravenes Rule 7(1)(e) of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which mandates that the total price, including all charges and taxes, must be displayed upfront.

The CCPA has, therefore, given instructions to the company to amend this practice and make sure that both original and discounted prices are shown as inclusive of all taxes. Any additional charges must be clearly disclosed. Given the company’s extensive operations and its position as one of the largest online retailers of maternity, baby and children’s products in India and Asia, this misleading practice was found to have a significant impact on consumers. 

CCPA has consequently given directions to the company to always display both original and discounted prices as inclusive of all taxes and to prominently disclose any extra charges, such as shipping or convenience fees. Although this misleading practice has been discontinued, the CCPA has emphasized that it must not be adopted again in the future.

After the invention of CCPA, FirstCry has made corrections in its platform for more transparency in display of prices across the company’s website and mobile app. Moreover, a display of the disclaimer ‘price inclusive of all taxes’ is put across all pages of Website and mobile app. The changes are now live on the platform and clearly reflect that GST will not be charged on discount rate and the rate displayed after discount across all pages is the final product price, inclusive of all taxes.

Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB)