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The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) conducted search and seizure operations across 22 warehouses in India in FY 2024–25, B.L. Verma – the Minister of State (MoS) for Consumer Affairs – revealed in the Lok Sabha on August 6.
Verma’s revelation came in response to a series of questions raised by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy in the lower house of Parliament. The questions were as follows:
1) Whether the Government has carried out any study/survey regarding the issue of dark stores not maintaining proper standards during the last five years? If so, the details thereof;
2) If so, the details regarding the total number of raids carried out by the BIS on dark stores during the last five years in a State-wise manner especially in Andhra Pradesh;
3) The details and the list of companies whose dark stores were found to be violative of the established regulations along with total amount of fines collected from each of them during the last five years, especially those based in Andhra Pradesh;
4) Whether the Government has suspended functioning of any such dark stores during the last five years? And if so, the details thereof;
5) Whether the Government has conducted any awareness campaigns regarding the required standards for dark stores? And if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?
Government’s Response
Verma responded to Reddy, saying that the BIS carried out market surveillance of products sold on e-commerce and quick commerce platforms during 2024-25.
In total, the BIS procured 344 samples falling under mandatory BIS certification based on various quality control orders. However, 142 of these samples were found to be without valid BIS certification.
Consequently, investigations into such violations resulted in search and seizure operations at 22 e-commerce warehouses. These included one, seven, and 14 warehouses of Blinkit, Instakart, and Amazon respectively.
For context, Instakart is the logistics division of Flipkart that handles the company’s e-commerce deliveries.
In terms of locations of these raids, the BIS raided:
- Three warehouses each in Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra;
- Two warehouses each in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu;
- One warehouse each in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Odisha, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.
Verma also stated that the Government has conducted widespread publicity campaigns aimed at raising awareness among stakeholders through print media, electronic media, and social media, including BIS’s official handles on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
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What is interesting to note is that Verma did not explicitly provide any statistics for the last five years regarding the total number of raids, the amount of fines collected, or whether the Government suspended the operations of any violating warehouses.
Another notable point based on his revelations is that Amazon has emerged as a frequent violator of BIS guidelines regarding the sale of certified products on its platform.
Amazon Under The BIS Scanner In India Recently
What Verma stated in the Lok Sabha corroborates recent reports, especially those concerning BIS raids on Amazon warehouses in India.
For instance, the Delhi branch of the BIS conducted raids at Amazon and Flipkart warehouses in the national capital on March 19, consequently confiscating products worth Rs 76 lakh that did not carry the mandatory ISI mark.
Notably, the raid at Amazon’s warehouse lasted for more than 15 hours, with the BIS confiscating over 3,500 products.
Elsewhere, the Chennai BIS branch carried out raids in the Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu on the same day. The national standards body seized 3,376 products worth Rs 36 lakh, which lacked the standard mark, from an Amazon warehouse in Durainallur village of the district.
The Chennai team also collected evidence of the Jeff Bezos-owned company flouting multiple quality control orders related to various products, including insulated food containers and metallic potable water bottles.
Furthermore, on March 7, the BIS conducted search and seizure missions at Amazon and Flipkart warehouses in Delhi, Gurugram, and Lucknow to crack down on the sale of non-certified, unsafe products.
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