The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has raised the question of how the customers who have been cheated and stuck after investing in various online-based e-commerce and LLM institutions of the country will get their money back.
A four-member Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan raised such a question in a hearing regarding Multilevel Marketing Company (MLM) Unipay-to-U on Tuesday (January 23). Senior lawyer Md. Khurshid Alam Khan was in the hearing on behalf of ACC.
At that time, the court asked the senior lawyer who heard on behalf of the ACC, ‘How will the customers get back the money stuck in various institutions including Unipay-to-U, Evaly, or Alesha Mart? Customers should get their money back’.
After investing in various online-based e-commerce and LLM companies, customers who have been cheated and stuck have repeatedly approached the courts without getting their money. Following this, the Supreme Court has ordered various times to refund the money to the customers.
Meanwhile, the customers of 18 e-commerce companies that have been accused of misappropriation of the customer’s money did not get back the money stuck in the payment gateway. The unreturned amount is about 144 crores. Sources said, in January 2022, the Ministry of Commerce started the refund process according to the joint list of Bangladesh Bank, e-commerce companies and gateway companies. With information from Bangladesh Bank, Ministry of Commerce prepared a list of accused 32 e-commerce companies. 531 crores owed by customers to 32 e-commerce companies (only money stuck in gateways). Out of these, 18 companies did not refund the money to the customers. In the first year i.e., throughout the year 2022, the refund program went well. 310 crore taka was refunded to the customers of the service. But in the second year, i.e., 2023, 77 crore taka was returned. Customers have received a total refund of Tk 387 crore so far. Aggrieved customers are still hoping to get back 144 crore taka.