The main legal point established is the necessity of proper representation of parties and the opportunity to contest claims in consumer complaints.

ORDER :

Mr. Justice S. Baidya, President-This appeal filed on 8.12.2015 by Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd. (ASSPL) through its representative authorized by the Board of Directors under Section 15 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is directed against the Judgment and Order dated 24.12.2014 passed ex parte by the learned District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (in short District Forum), West Tripura, Agartala, in case No. CC-56/2014 whereby the learned District Forum directed the opposite party No. 1 Amazon.in represented by the Senior Executive Retail Sales, Amazon Development Centre Pvt. Ltd. to replace the damaged chimney by a new one or to refund the price of the kitchen chimney amounting to Rs. 14,189 to the complainant within 6 (six) weeks from the date of judgment, failing which the said amount will carry interest @ 9% per annum till the payment is made and also directed to pay Rs. 5,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and harassment together along with Rs. 2,000 as cost of litigation to the complainant.

2. The case of the appellant, as narrated in the memo of appeal, in brief, is that the respondent No. 1-complainant filed the complaint with the intention of harassing the appellant and also for extorting money, but the learned Forum erroneously passed the impugned judgment against the O.P. No. 1. It has also been stated that the respondent No. 1 ordered to purchase one kitchen chimney (Elica Curve BF 60 Touch) through online shopping from Amazon.in website and the said product was shipped by the seller Hindustan Trading Company via respondent No. 2 i.e. Blue Dart and the respondent No. 1 received the same on 9.5.2014, but the respondent No. 1 while opening the product found the same in broken condition and he immediately informed the same to the appellant through e-mails and when he did not get any satisfactory reply from Amazon.in, he filed the complaint and got the ex parte order of award in his favour.

It has also been alleged that the impugned judgment was passed by the learned Forum without hearing the appellant and without giving an opportunity to the appellant for contest its case.

3. It has also been stated that Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd. (ASSPL) is a well reputed company and has a large number of customer base and amongst others, runs, manages, operates the www.amazon.in website. It has also been alleged that the ASSPL neither sales nor offers to sell any product and merely provides a technology platform (an online market place) where independent third party sellers can list their products for sale and therefore, the sellers themselves, and not ASSPL, are responsible for their respective listings and products on the website and, as such, the ASSPL is neither responsible for the products listed on the website by various third party sellers nor involved in the sale transaction between the customer and the seller. It has also been alleged that the conditions of use relating to the Amazon.in website and agreed upon by the customers specifically state that the ASSPL is only a facilitator and cannot be a party to control in any manner any sale transaction on the website and the contract of sale of products on the website is strictly a bipartite contract between the customer and the seller.

4. It has also been stated that seller of the product facilitated and arranged for transportation of product and made an arrangement with the carrier i.e. Blue Dart, the respondent No. 2 to deliver the ordered product to the respondent No. 1. The appellant was neither involved in the sale transaction between the seller and the respondent No. 1 nor did ASSPL facilitate the shipment of the product to the respondent No. 1 and the said shipment was solely in the domain of the seller and the carrier to the total exclusion of ASSPL.

5. It has also been alleged that the ASSPL never received any kind of notice from the learned District Forum, rather the notice was sent to another entity of Amazon.in i.e. Amazon Developmen