CCI seeks financials from Amazon, Flipkart to decide penalty over anti-trust case
The penalty in the anti-trust case has been running for four years and will depend on the outcome of the regulatory hearing.
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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has asked Amazon Seller Services and Flipkart Internet to share financial statements to determine a potential penalty in an ongoing antitrust case.
In 2020, the CCI ordered an investigation into Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly promoting certain sellers with which they had business arrangements and giving priority to certain listings. In a 1027-page report on Amazon and a separate 1,696-page report on Flipkart- both dated August 9, the CCI investigators said the companies were found to have created an ecosystem where preferred sellers appeared higher in search results, elbowing out other sellers.
The anti-trust investigations also found that both the e-commerce giants have violated local competition laws by providing steeply discounting products, hurting other companies. Further, it was alleged that both platforms had used their foreign investments to provide such subsidised rates.
The penalty in the anti-trust case has been running for four years and will depend on the outcome of the regulatory hearing.
The CCI can impose a charge of as much as 10% of global turnover which includes revenue earned by the entity in India and abroad.
The CCI has already shared non-confidential versions of the findings of its Director General of Investigation (DG), according to a Mint report.
The investigation into the e-commerce platforms stemmed from a trade association complaint.
It is to be noted that e-commerce giants including Amazon and Flipkart both have en facing criticism for their business practices in India from smaller retailers.
Recently, Piyush Goyal, India's Minister of Commerce and Industry has questioned Amazon's predatory pricing strategy which is a risk for smaller retailers. Referring to the company's Rs. 6000 crore loss in India, he said, “If you make Rs 6,000 crore loss in one year, does that not smell like predatory pricing to any of you?”
