CAIT vs Amazon, Flipkart: Following the Supreme Court’s (SC) October 26 directive to Karnataka High Court (HC) to determine no matter whether Competition Commission of India (CCI) can probe into alleged small business malpractices by Amazon and Flipkart, the higher court on Wednesday decided to hear petitions from all the parties on January 18, 2021, to lastly dispose of the matter. CCI had earlier filed an appeal in the apex court against the interim keep order by the Karnataka HC to probe e-commerce marketplaces, nonetheless, SC had declined to intervene.
“Karnataka HC didn’t want to hear all the petitions separately. Hence, it informed all the parties that it would hear them in one go on January 18. This might take two-three days but the court will finally dispose of the matter. Petitions from Flipkart and Amazon on CCI probe, ours and Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh and CCI’s also will be heard next month,” Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary-General, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) told TheSpuzz Online.
Khandelwal claimed that Flipkart’s counsel stated that CAIT’s submission is not needed to be heard for the final disposal. However, “the court allowed Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh and CAIT to file their reply to the petition this week.” Amazon and Flipkart had filed writ petitions in February 2020, in Karnataka HC against the CCI order following a complaint by the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh against Amazon and Flipkart more than alleged deep discount of rates and partnering with pick sellers. A copy of the Amazon petition was noticed by TheSpuzz Online.
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CCI had directed the DG workplace for finishing the investigation in 60 days. However, the two businesses had currently denied the allegations described in the CCI order. The court had ordered a keep on the investigation following which the CCI had filed a petition just before the SC in October 2020. Amazon, in its petition, had mentioned that the findings of the CCI order are “perverse, arbitrary, untenable in law,” and that the “present Impugned order has been passed without prima facie application of mind” and that “irreparable loss and injury would be caused to the petitioner and its reputation/goodwill.” The firm had urged the court for “quashing and setting aside the Impugned order dated January 13, 2020” and “direct the stay” of the order “till the disposal of the writ petition.”
CAIT had final month written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi arguing that massive e-commerce businesses possessing deep pockets are leaving no stone unturned in monopolizing the e-commerce small business and retail trade of India with their malpractices and violating FDI policy. The confederation has been lengthy claiming that the on the web marketplaces have been undertaking “predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss funding and exclusivity of various products, which are not allowed under the FDI policy,” it had mentioned in a statement final year. However, each Amazon and Flipkart have repeatedly claimed comprehensive compliance with the FDI laws and that they are marketplaces facilitating the shopping for and promoting of goods among shoppers and sellers.