🇮🇳How does India mark Shopping Festivals?

Big Billion Days

Local date

September 23, 2026–October 2, 2026

When is it?

Late September to early October, in the festive buying season, with each platform announcing its own dates every year.

India's festive sales have no official date at all: Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival are the platforms' own events, timed to the buying season before Diwali and announced afresh each year, usually somewhere between late September and early October. What makes India distinctive is not the discount but the interface — it is the only one of the seven markets with a rulebook written for the screen rather than the price tag. The Central Consumer Protection Authority issued the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns on 30 November 2023, naming thirteen specified dark patterns in the e-commerce sector; the official summaries give drip pricing, disguised advertisements and false urgency among them. They sit under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, alongside the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020. On 28 May 2025 a stakeholder meeting in New Delhi chaired by the Union Minister brought in Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy and Zomato among others and directed them to self-audit and remove dark patterns. Elsewhere the state asks whether the discount is real; India also asks whether the countdown clock, the item that added itself to the basket, and the fee that appears at the last step are real.