After being ordered to update its terms and conditions by Comesa, the competition authority in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, e-commerce company Jumia will now be responsible for the safety and quality of products sold on its platform by independent vendors.

In an effort to safeguard customers, the Comesa Competition Commission, which has been looking into Jumia Group’s actions since September 2021, has now ordered Jumia to make the modifications.

The watchdog discovered that Jumia had effectively exempted itself from liability by refusing to be a party to any contracts for sale or purchases made between clients and its agents.

The watchdog reported that Jumia occasionally failed to give customers any documentation tying the transaction to the third party acting as the seller.

In 2021, third-party vendors provided almost 90% of the merchandise sold on the Jumia platform.

Jumia, which operates in 23 Comesa-acquired nations, including Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, and Tunisia, will now be held accountable when clients are unable to locate the suppliers.
“Jumia was cooperative and in compliance with the Commission’s recommendations, reviewed its terms and conditions to the Commission’s satisfaction,” said the watchdog.

Through its platform: first-party sales, food delivery, logistics services, and fintech JumiaPay, Jumia provides e-commerce services and offers payment services to its commodities including food.

“The Commission’s observation was that Jumia was dissociating itself from the transaction when in an actual transaction the consumer deals only with Jumia, in that it is the one that receives the orders, payments and delivers on behalf of the seller,” said the Commission.
According to Jumia, the continent of Africa has 8.4 million active users, with over four million of those users located in Kenya alone, making it one of the largest markets with more than 100,000 sellers.

Jumia order

Jumia Africa processed 38.9 million orders last year, with a gross merchandise value of $1.05 billion (Sh132.9 billion).

The data on the Jumia Kenya website indicates that almost 40% of Jumia sellers in Kenya earn more than Sh50,000 every month.

Jumia has consented to begin providing clients with information such as the name, address, and phone number of the company that would be served with legal documents in the event of a dispute. Jumia has also agreed to start being directly accountable if the vendor cannot be found.