If you resell imported goods on Amazon or Flipkart — electronics accessories, kitchenware, fashion, toys — a quiet regulatory change is working its way through the system that will make your product's origin the first thing consumers can filter for.
Not the price. Not the rating. The country it was made in.
The government proposed this in November 2025, and while it hasn't passed yet, the direction is clear and the lead time to prepare is now — not after the notification lands.
What the Draft Rule Actually Says
On November 10, 2025, the Department of Consumer Affairs published the Draft Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) (Second) Amendment Rules, 2025. The operative clause:
"Every e-commerce entity selling imported products shall provide a searchable and sortable filter for the country of origin, with their product listings."
That's it. Nineteen words that put country of origin — currently buried somewhere in the product description on most listings — into a prominent, consumer-facing filter alongside price and rating.
The rule sits on the platform: Amazon and Flipkart would need to build the filter. But the data feeding that filter comes entirely from seller-declared information in the product catalogue. If you haven't correctly declared your product's origin in your seller account, the platform can't surface it — and you're potentially in violation once the rule takes effect.
What Already Exists — and What Most Sellers Are Getting Wrong
This isn't the first country-of-origin requirement. The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 already mandate that all pre-packaged imported goods carry a country-of-origin declaration on the physical label. That's been law for over a decade.
The 2025 amendment extends it to the digital listing — but the underlying data requirement is the same. If your physical packaging says "Made in China" and your Amazon listing says nothing, you're already in a grey zone under current law. The draft amendment just makes the digital gap impossible to ignore.
Walk through your product listings on Amazon Seller Central today. Under "Product Details" or "Compliance Information," look for the country of origin field. For many sellers who've been listing for years, it's either blank or carries a default entry they never consciously set. That default entry is what will appear in a country-of-origin filter — visible to every consumer who sorts by it.
How "Made in India" Is Legally Defined — The Substantial Transformation Rule
This is where it gets specific for sellers who source components from China but assemble or process in India.
India follows the substantial transformation rule for origin determination: if the last substantial manufacturing process that gave the product its essential character occurred in India, it qualifies as Indian origin — regardless of where the raw materials came from.
What counts as substantial transformation:
- A change in the HS (Harmonised System) tariff classification at the 4-digit heading level between input and output
- A significant manufacturing or processing operation that creates a new product with a different name, character, and use
What doesn't count:
- Simple assembly of imported components without value addition
- Repacking, relabelling, or dilution
- Mixing products of the same type from different countries
A seller who imports LED components from China and manufactures complete luminaires in their Pune factory — with the HSN classification changing from components to finished lights — can legitimately label the product as "Made in India." A seller who buys finished LED bulbs from a Chinese supplier, puts them in a branded box, and ships from an Indian warehouse cannot.
Arjun imports phone accessories — screen protectors and cases — from Shenzhen with his brand name already printed on the packaging. The product enters India finished, branded, and ready to sell. Under both current rules and the draft amendment, these are imported goods of Chinese origin. They cannot be listed as Made in India regardless of where he ships them from. He needs to declare China as the country of origin in his Amazon and Flipkart listings.
The Commercial Reality: What Consumers Will See
Once the filter is live, a consumer shopping for phone chargers can sort by: Price ↑ | Rating ↓ | Country of Origin: India only.
Products without a declared origin or with non-India origin will filter out entirely. For Indian manufacturers, this is a straightforward advantage — for the first time, their domestic production becomes a discoverable competitive differentiator in the same search results where they compete with cheaper imports.
For importers and resellers of foreign goods, the filter isn't necessarily damaging — but it does require that your listings be accurate, complete, and prepared before consumers start using it. A product with a blank origin field will likely be treated as unverified and filtered out by cautious buyers.
Four Things to Do Before the Rule Is Notified
1. Audit your listings for country of origin completeness. Log in to your Seller Central or Flipkart Seller Hub account. Export your full product catalogue. Filter for blank or missing "Country of Origin" fields. These are your highest-risk listings.
2. Determine the correct origin for each product. Apply the substantial transformation rule to any product where you're genuinely uncertain. When in doubt — especially for products with imported components assembled in India — get a written opinion from a CA or trade consultant. A wrong declaration is worse than a blank one because it's an active misrepresentation.
3. Update physical labels simultaneously. If your physical packaging doesn't already carry a country-of-origin declaration on the label, fix it now — this is already a legal requirement under the 2011 rules. Getting both the physical label and the digital listing right at the same time saves you a second audit when the amendment passes.
4. If you manufacture in India, start declaring it actively. Don't wait for the filter to go live. Update your listings with "Made in India" now — it's a positive signal to consumers already looking for domestic products, and it gives you a head start on the visibility advantage the filter will eventually formalise.
Penalties Under Legal Metrology Act 2009
The draft amendment doesn't create new penalties — it expands an existing compliance regime. The Legal Metrology Act 2009 penalties:
| Violation | First Offence | Repeat Offence |
|---|---|---|
| Missing country-of-origin declaration | Fine up to ₹25,000 | Fine up to ₹1 lakh |
| False country-of-origin declaration | Fine up to ₹25,000 + possible imprisonment | Fine up to ₹1 lakh + possible imprisonment |
| Non-compliance by platform (once notified) | Fine as per Rules | Escalating liability |
Enforcement is through the state Legal Metrology Officers who already conduct periodic inspections of marketplaces and physical retail. The digital extension of these rules brings online listings into the same inspection framework as physical shelf products.
Understand your full compliance obligations as an e-commerce seller → See how GST compliance affects your marketplace seller standing → MSME classification 2025: check your updated status →
The rule isn't final yet. But the direction has been consistent across every government policy from Make in India to the PLI scheme to this amendment — domestic origin is becoming a visible, searchable, and regulatorily privileged attribute. Sellers who sort this out now are ahead of a queue that will get crowded the day the notification lands.