TMC MP Mahua Moitra accuses Decathlon of violating privacy, consumer laws

The TMC MP said that when she visited the Decathlon store in Delhi's Ansal Plaza, a popular French sporting goods retailer, to buy a pair of trousers for her father on Thursday (April 29), she was asked to share her mobile phone number and email address to close a purchase deal.

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mathuva Moitra accused Decathlon on Friday of violating privacy and consumer laws when she visited the shop in Delhi to purchase something. She also shared a screenshot of a message from a "top lawyer," asking her not to share her mobile phone number.

The TMC MP said that when she visited the Decathlon store in Delhi's Ansal Plaza, a popular French sporting goods retailer, to buy a pair of trousers for her father on Thursday (April 29), she was asked to share her mobile phone number and email address to close a purchase deal. She called out the retailer for insisting on personal details, thereby "violating privacy laws and consumer laws". She made those accusations in a series of tweets on Twitter. Her first tweet, which was tweeted while she was in the store said,

• Want to buy my dad trousers for ₹1499 in CASH at @Decathlon_India Ansal Plaza & manager insists I need to put in my mobile number & email
  ID to purchase.
  Sorry @Decathlon_India you are violating privacy laws & consumer laws by insisting on this. Am at store currently.

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  Want to buy my dad trousers for ₹1499 in CASH at @Decathlon_India Ansal Plaza & manager insists I need to put in my mobile number & email
  ID to purchase.
  Sorry @Decathlon_India you are violating privacy laws & consumer laws by insisting on this. Am at store currently.

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

  ">

  Want to buy my dad trousers for ₹1499 in CASH at @Decathlon_India Ansal Plaza & manager insists I need to put in my mobile number & email
  ID to purchase.
  Sorry @Decathlon_India you are violating privacy laws & consumer laws by insisting on this. Am at store currently.

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

Her tweet further said "I always buy stuff in the UK from @DecathlonUK & they NEVER ask for mobile num & only for an email if one wants a paperless receipt. So clearly only their Indian arm wants to fool customers here. Not nice @Decathlon_India".

• I always buy stuff in UK from @DecathlonUK & they NEVER ask for mobile num & only for email if one wants paperless receipt.
  So clearly only Indian arm wants to fool customers here. Not nice @Decathlon_India

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  I always buy stuff in UK from @DecathlonUK & they NEVER ask for mobile num & only for email if one wants paperless receipt.
  So clearly only Indian arm wants to fool customers here. Not nice @Decathlon_India

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

  ">

  I always buy stuff in UK from @DecathlonUK & they NEVER ask for mobile num & only for email if one wants paperless receipt.
  So clearly only Indian arm wants to fool customers here. Not nice @Decathlon_India

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

The Trinamool Congress MP also shared a screenshot of a message she said she received from a “top lawyer at the Supreme Court” regarding the issue. The message instructed her not to give her personal mobile number and instead ask the retailer to reconfigure their system accordingly. The message also referred to a similar instance they encountered in Lenskart where the issue was solved after the head manager entered a "random employee's number".

• Received this message from a top lawyer at the Supreme Court just now. The sweet manager finally put in his number & got me out of store (with dad’s trousers) But @Decathlon_India needs to reconfigure now. pic.twitter.com/Ez4OxGDuJJ

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  Received this message from a top lawyer at the Supreme Court just now. The sweet manager finally put in his number & got me out of store (with dad’s trousers) But @Decathlon_India needs to reconfigure now. pic.twitter.com/Ez4OxGDuJJ

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

  ">

  Received this message from a top lawyer at the Supreme Court just now. The sweet manager finally put in his number & got me out of store (with dad’s trousers) But @Decathlon_India needs to reconfigure now. pic.twitter.com/Ez4OxGDuJJ

  — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 28, 2022

Sharing the message, Moitra said that the manager at the Decathon store put in his mobile number to get her out of the store while insisting that Decathlon the retail chain reconfigure their system. Though most retail stores ask for contact details of customers when finalizing payment to build a data catalog, they cannot make it mandatory.