Evaly violates the law

E-commerce marketing company Evaly is taking payments in advance from its customers, but not delivering its products in time. Customers are placing orders, but often receive the wrong products. Also, low quality merchandise is even being delivered.

If a product is not delivered, Evaly is required to refund the customer’s money. Instead, however, the company keeps it, violating five sections of the Penal Code 1860, two sections of the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 and a section of the Digital Security Act 2018.

Last month, the home ministry’s Public Security Division submitted a report to the commerce ministry regarding this practice of Evaly.

The report was prepared after reviewing the existing laws and interviewing customers who made advance payments to Evaly, but failed to receive their orders or get their money back. The commerce ministry sent the letter to seven organisations on 3 September last year. Only the Public Security Division summited its report.

The report stated failure to deliver products on time after taking payment in advance constitutes criminal breach of trust and fraudulence as per the Penal Code 1860 and the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009. Punishment of such offence is rigorous imprisonment for one to three years.

Evaly doesn’t return the money of cash back offers to customers and keeps it in their 'wallets'. Besides, the company does not allow customers to use 100 per cent of their money. Such an offence can result in seven years' imprisonment, the report mentioned.

The report further said Evaly does not communicate properly with its customers through its hotline number, support email, Evaly apps and social media platforms, which is a criminal offence.

In the report, the commerce ministry has been requested to make Evaly introduce ‘cash on delivery’ system instead of advance payment.

Regarding the report, Evaly managing director Mohamamd Rassel told Prothom Alo on Sunday that the Public Security Division had made some observations, but hadn't accused him of committing any crime.

Meanwhile, a seven-member committee was formed on 1 September last year at the requested of e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) to review the business methods of Evaly. The committee submitted its report in last October. However, e-Cab kept it to itself. The commerce ministry collected a summary of the report from e-Cab two month ago.

The members of the committee include four associate professors of Dhaka University -- Rafiuddin Ahmed of the marketing department, BM Mainul Hossain of the Institute of Information Technology, Iftekharul Amin of Institute of Business Administration and Suborna Barua of the International Business department -- lawyer Shawan S Novel, founder and partner of Accfintax Faisal Mahmud Sajeeb and head of research at e-Cab Sadruddin Imran.

The committee’s report states, Evaly sells products at low prices to attract customers. The company pays its suppliers' dues with the advance payments of the customers. It also arranges its working capital from the customers’ money.

The report said Evaly has 2.1 million (21 lakh) registered customers, of which, 42,000 to 63,000 have experienced long delays in delivery or have not received their products at all. This company with a Tk 10 million (1 crore) paid-up capital conducts transactions of Tk 30 billion (Tk 3,000 crore) annually. Extensive investigations are needed to find out whether the money taken from customers is actually being laundered.

The report stated manufacturers of products like motorcycles and mobile phones sell their products through a third party or dealers. This practice is universally accepted and very popular to importers and local manufacturers. But Evaly is selling products at lower prices. Such a huge difference in the price of same product at two places is unwarranted.

Evaly managing director Mohammad Russel, speaking to Prothom Alo, said, “To whom are we a threat? It's natural to be threat to competitors.”

The gold jewelry company, Diamond World Limited, filed a case against Evaly chairman Shamima Nasrin and managing director Mohammad Rassel at the Gulshan police station in Dhaka on 7 December last year.

According to the documents of the case filed under the Digital Security Act, Evaly sells and displays jewelry products on its website and various social media platforms using the name and logo of Diamond World. Evaly is working in its own interests at the cost of Diamond World and its customers, according to the charges filed against the marketing company.

Head of media and marketing at Diamond World, Mehedi Hasan, told Prothom Alo, “Previously, they (Evaly) were warned about the issue, but they paid no heed.”

Evaly managing director Mohammad Rassel said, “This was done mistakenly. So far as I know, investigations are underway.”

In reply to the letter sent to seven organisations by the commerce ministry, the Anti-Corruption Commission has instructed to the ministry to investigate the matter. Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) had prepared a reply but didn’t send it to the ministry. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) had also not replied.

Sources at Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection said, about 1,000 complaints have been filed against Evaly till December last year. Four months ago, there were only 300 complaints.

However, the Competition Commission was able to bring Evaly managing director Mohammad Rassel to a hearing on 3 December after three months. Chairman of Competition Commission Md Mofizul Islam said they are working on the matter.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has been awarded in the best government organisation category for its special contribution to e-commerce, at the 7th Digital World 2020 held in Dhaka on 12 December last year. Evaly was the sponsor of the event.

Commerce secretary Md Jafar Uddin told Prothom Alo, “The e-commerce policy has some shortcomings. Now a policy is being formulated for all e-commerce companies, not only for Evaly. Once it’s done, the e-commerce platforms will come under one common structure.”

Regarding receiving the award at the event sponsored by Evaly, he said, “It’s very difficult to understand the matter. If you switch on the television, you see Evaly advertisements.”

This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Hasanul Banna