Legal Metrology Rules for Online Sellers: What Your Listing and Your Pack Must Show

The mandatory declarations

In a 2024 reply in the Lok Sabha, the Consumer Affairs Ministry summarised the declarations the Rules require on pre-packaged commodities:

Two of these are relatively recent. Unit sale price was introduced for pre-packed retail commodities from 1 April 2022, so shoppers can compare packs of different sizes. A further amendment (G.S.R. 722(E), 6 October 2023) on declaring unit sale price alongside the MRP and the month and year of manufacture came into force on 1 January 2024.

Your listing is a regulated label

The 2017 amendment to the Rules, in force from 1 January 2018, added Rule 6(10). It says an e-commerce entity must ensure the mandatory declarations, except the month and year in which the commodity is manufactured or packed, are displayed on the digital and electronic network used for the transaction. In plain terms: the product page has to show what the label shows.

• If you sell on your own website, you are the e-commerce entity, and the obligation sits with you directly.
• If you sell on a marketplace, the Rules shift responsibility for the correctness of the declarations to the manufacturer, seller, packer or importer, provided the platform's role is limited to hosting the seller's information and it meets the other conditions in the Rules. Either way, the details shown come from you, so they have to be right.

Two rules that often catch sellers out

• One MRP per product. Unless another law provides otherwise, a manufacturer, packer or importer may not declare different MRPs on an identical pre-packaged product. Sellers running a different MRP for online and offline stock of the same item should check this with their compliance adviser.
• The listing must match the pack. If your listing says one net quantity, address or country of origin and the pack says another, the declarations are not correct, wherever the mismatch is. Check listings again every time you change packaging, a supplier or a packer.

Selling imported products: the country-of-origin filter

In February 2026, the government inserted Rule 6(10A), requiring every e-commerce entity selling imported products to list them in a searchable and sortable filter specifying the country of origin, from 1 July 2026. On 27 April 2026, a second amendment replaced that rule and moved the start date to 1 July 2027.

The filter is the platform's job, but it can only work if the country of origin on each listing is filled in correctly. If you import, or sell products that contain imported goods, use the time before July 2027 to check the country of origin on every listing against the pack and your import documents.

A quick audit before you list

1. Take the physical pack and the live listing side by side.
2. Check each declaration in the table above appears on both, with the same wording and numbers.
3. Confirm the MRP matches across every channel where you sell the identical product.
4. Check that the unit sale price is shown and calculated on the right unit.
5. For imported products, confirm the country of origin on the listing matches the label.
6. Repeat the check whenever packaging, a supplier or the packer changes.

Listing problems often show up first as suppressed or inactive listings; our guide to fixing suppressed listings covers the common causes. For quick commerce, see the listing documents and compliance checklist.