When tickets fail: a sober guide to sellers' legal options in India.

MSME Samadhaan is the central government's portal for delayed-payment grievances by micro, small and medium enterprises. At a high level: if your business holds valid Udyam registration and a buyer — which can include a marketplace entity, depending on the facts — has held your payment beyond the 45-day window the MSMED Act prescribes, you can file a reference that goes to the state's MSME Facilitation Council. Eligibility turns on your registration status and the nature of the dues, so verify the current rules on the official portal and take professional advice before filing.

Generally no, and this trips up a lot of sellers. Consumer forums exist for consumers — people buying goods or services for personal use. A seller's dispute with a marketplace is a commercial dispute between businesses, which points to civil courts, commercial courts, arbitration under the seller agreement, or MSME channels where they apply. Filing in the wrong forum wastes months and filing fees. A lawyer can confirm the right venue for your specific facts in a single consultation, which is cheap compared to the detour.

Run the numbers honestly before deciding. A notice through a lawyer costs real money — a few thousand rupees is a common illustrative range, though fees vary widely by counsel and city — so weigh that against the amount stuck and the strength of your paper trail. Two things improve the maths: sellers report that a well-drafted notice sometimes prompts re-engagement by itself, and a documented pattern of many small deductions can be presented together rather than as one tiny claim. If the claim is small and the file is thin, the honest answer may be no.

Many marketplace seller agreements contain a dispute-resolution clause specifying arbitration, sometimes with a named seat and rules, and increasingly with online dispute resolution options. That clause can shape which routes are open to you and where, so read your agreement before spending anything on a formal step — the clause you agreed to at onboarding is the map. What arbitration means for cost and speed in your case is a question for counsel; the practical takeaway is simply that the agreement, not internet folklore, defines your starting position.

Every formal route runs on the same fuel: a complete, dated, order-level record. Robnu builds that record as a by-product of doing your daily work — it runs AJIO and Meesho operations end to end, reconciles every settlement against what each order should have paid, and keeps deductions, claims and outcomes organised and exportable. Its claim filing also exhausts the platform process systematically, in writing — fully autonomous filing is rolling out, with a rare claim asking for one approval click. If you ever sit across from a lawyer, you bring a file, not a shoebox.