The Legal Metrology Act, 2009
- Citation
- Act No. 1 of 2010
- Jurisdiction
- IN
- Made by
- Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
- Instrument
- Act
- Status
- In force
What it requires (3 obligations)
No person may manufacture, pack, sell, import, distribute, deliver, offer, expose or possess for sale any pre-packaged commodity unless the package is in the standard quantities or number prescribed and bears on it the declarations and particulars prescribed, in the prescribed manner. A garment sold in a polybag, box or any other package made up in advance is a pre-packaged commodity for this purpose.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Apparel, textiles, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
The verbs matter to an exporter: the duty attaches at manufacture, packing and import, not only at sale, so a consignment is already inside it before anything is offered to a consumer. The Act creates the duty and leaves its content to rules: what must be declared, in what form and in what manner is "as may be prescribed", which is the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. So this record establishes THAT a garment sold pre-packaged in India must carry declarations, and does not state WHICH — those are in the Rules, which this register does not yet hold because the central text is a base notification plus at least five amendment items and a record drafted from the base alone would state superseded requirements.
Quoted from section 18(1), read from the TEXT bundle bitstream of India Code item 496114, headed "As on the 7th May, 2026".
Any advertisement mentioning the retail sale price of a pre-packaged commodity must contain a declaration of the net quantity or number of the commodity in the package, in the prescribed form and manner.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Apparel, textiles, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
A duty on the advertisement rather than on the package, and it is triggered by mentioning the retail sale price. A listing that shows a price therefore carries it, which reaches marketing copy and product listings rather than the label alone.
Quoted from section 18(2).
Whoever manufactures, packs, imports, sells, distributes, delivers or otherwise transfers, offers, exposes or possesses for sale — including through digital modes of sale such as e-commerce platforms, online marketplaces or any other digital or electronic means, including electronic service providers facilitating such sales — any pre-packaged commodity that does not conform to the declarations on the package as provided in the Act is to be warned with an improvement notice, and is liable to penalty on a second offence.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Apparel, textiles, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
Two things changed here and both matter to a supplier selling into India online. The enforcement reaches e-commerce platforms, marketplaces and electronic service providers facilitating the sale, not only the seller. And the FIRST offence is an improvement notice rather than a penalty — the liability arrives on the second. Anyone reading an older copy of this section will have neither.
Quoted from section 36(1) as it stands in the text "As on the 7th May, 2026"; the subsection is marked as amended, and the Act's own list of amending Acts names the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act.
This is a register, not advice. It records what an instrument says and when it applies. Whether it applies to a particular company, product or shipment is a question for somebody who knows that business, and the answer is frequently not what the summary above would suggest.
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