- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
US E-COMMERCE giant Amazon has dragged India’s financial crime-dealing agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) to court to quash a probe into one of its 2019 agreements, Reuters reported citing a court filing.
The ED has for months been investigating Amazon’s $200 million (£149 million) investment in India’s Future Group for suspected violation of foreign investment laws.
The investment has seen a legal storm as Amazon has used the terms of the deal and cited contract breaches by Future to stall the $3.4-billion (£2.5 billion) sale of the Indian firm’s retail assets to a rival company.
In a filing which is more than 810 pages long, Amazon has called the investigation a “fishing and roving” inquiry, claiming the Indian agency had sought privileged legal advice and opinions from Amazon and other information which is not related to the Future Group deal.
The ED has summoned several Amazon executives, including its India head, in recent weeks and the US company has alleged in its filing to the Delhi High Court on December 21 that the investigation has caused “unnecessary harassment”.
“The directions by the ED asking for disclosure of legally privileged documents and litigation privilege information is derogatory of the principles” laid out in the Indian Constitution, Amazon said in the filing.
“The investigation is a fishing and roving exercise,” it said.
The filing is the latest twist in the dispute between Amazon and Future which has been continuing for a while. Though India’s antitrust body suspended last week their 2019 deal, saying the US company suppressed information when seeking approvals for it, the ED’s probe is independent.
The dispute centres around three commercial pacts signed between Future and Amazon entities, which a Singapore arbitration panel, which is also hearing the case, said must be read together when reviewing the transaction, Reuters reported.
Amazon and the ED, which does not make its investigation details public, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The case is likely to be heard on Thursday (30).
