- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Shubham Ghosh
IN THE middle of the Indian government’s tussle with social media giant Twitter, Walmart Inc’s Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc have filed legal challenges against the resumption of an anti-trust probe into their business practices, Reuters reported citing sources and legal filing.
The Competitive Commission of India (CCI), which works to promote and sustain competition and protect interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the country’s markets, started an investigation in January 2020 after Flipkart and Amazon were accused of promoting select sellers on their respective platforms and using deep discounts.
The e-commerce companies denied any wrongdoing and although they succeeded in stalling the investigation for more than a year by raising immediate legal challenges, the Karnataka High Court said last week that it could resume after dismissing arguments that the CCI lacked evidence.
Court decision should be put on hold: Flipkart
Flipkart subsequently made a fresh appeal on Wednesday (16) and in that, it argued the decision made by the Karnataka court to allow the probe to start again was erroneous and should be out on hold.
“Irreparable injury will be caused to the appellant if the investigation was to continue pending the present appeal,” the Flipkart’s filing, which has been viewed by Reuters, said. It also appealed to the court to quash the initial CCI order for the investigation.
Amazon has also come up with a similar challenge, Reuters said citing a couple of sources. According to sources, both challenges are likely to get a hearing by a two-judge panel this week.
Reuters also cited sources to say that the CCI planned to speed up the investigations as it focuses more on scrutinising big tech firms. The CCI also plans to seek information from Flipkart and Amazon on the accusations fast, as per one source.
Both the e-commerce platforms are currently facing accusations from offline retailers that their complex business structure allows them to evade foreign investment rules for e-commerce.
Reuters ran an investigation in February based on Amazon documents which showed that preferential treatment was given to a small group of sellers for years on the e-commerce giant’s India platform. Amazon though refused saying it does not give preferential treatment to any seller.
