CCI Appeals to Supreme Court for Consolidation of Antitrust Cases Against Amazon and Flipkart
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New Delhi, Dec 7 (NationPress) The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has called on the Supreme Court to merge all legal cases against the e-commerce leaders Amazon and Flipkart in the nation to speed up the antitrust investigation.
In a formal petition, the country’s competition authority requested the unification of several proceedings initiated by a minimum of 20 online retailers of Amazon and Flipkart across various high courts, claiming that they are attempting to “hamper the investigation” into the two e-commerce giants.
This issue is linked to a 2019 antitrust investigation targeting Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly providing preferential treatment to certain online retailers, including Cloudtail India Pvt, Samsung India Electronics Pvt, Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd, and Appario Retail Pvt, as reported.
The CCI informed the apex court that these numerous proceedings initiated in high courts are intended to 'obstruct' the investigations carried out by the regulator.
The lawsuits filed in various high courts represent an “effort to undermine the established investigative procedures” as defined under the Act, which, if permitted to proceed, could lead to “nonsensical outcomes.”
It has been asserted that these cases are aimed at limiting the CCI’s investigation solely to the parties identified by the regulator for the purpose of the inquiry.
The competition authority highlighted that the writ petitions submitted by the online retailers are based on completely misguided legal issues, causing significant harm to the regulator, as its inquiry has been stalled, adversely impacting the public and the e-commerce sector overall, according to the petition.
The commission emphasized that all arguments presented in various high courts can be submitted directly to the commission. It was also argued that a non-confidential version of the investigation report has been shared with the involved parties, allowing them to raise objections where appropriate.
As of now, Amazon and Flipkart have not provided any comments.
The petition requests that these matters, currently under review by six different high courts nationwide, be consolidated and adjudicated either by the Supreme Court or the Delhi High Court.
