Consumer watchdog fines another walkie-talkie seller, taking penalties to ₹58 lakh

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined a private company ₹1 lakh for misleading advertisements and product listings of walkie-talkies, the latest step in a crackdown on radio sets sold online without the disclosures the law requires.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Sunday that the listings did not carry essential regulatory information, including the frequencies the devices operate on and the licensing rules that apply to them. The company was not named.

The authority began the case on its own, after noticing walkie-talkies being listed and sold on a large scale on e-commerce platforms without the mandatory information. It has since identified more than 16,000 non-compliant listings across platforms and issued notices to 13 e-commerce entities.

Final orders have so far been passed against 12 of them, with penalties adding up to ₹58 lakh for misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices linked to walkie-talkies.

Why the frequency matters

Walkie-talkies are radio transmitters, and whether a set can be used legally depends on which band it works in and whether a licence is needed for it. A buyer who cannot see that information on a product page has no way of knowing whether the set in the basket can be switched on without breaking the rules. That missing detail is what the authority has treated as misleading.

The ministry described the action as part of the CCPA’s continuing enforcement against misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices. It did not say whether more orders are pending against the 13th entity that received a notice.