The Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed Director General (DG) to investigate the Anti-Trust probe against Amazon and Flipkart and submit the report within a period of 60 days.
The Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (informant) states that there are instances of several vertical agreements between (i) Flipkart with their preferred sellers on the platform and (ii) Amazon with their preferred sellers, respectively which have led to the foreclosure of other non-preferred traders or sellers from these online marketplaces. It has been alleged that most of these preferred sellers are affiliated with or controlled by Flipkart or Amazon, either directly or indirectly.
The ruling was made by Coram comprising of Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta, Ms. Sangeeta Verma and Mr. Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi on an information filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh.
The Informant has alleged that the OPs are involved in following practices that are anti-competitive in view of Section 3(1) read with Section 3(4) of the Act.
Deep discounting: Flipkart provides deep discounts to a select few preferred sellers on its platform which adversely impacts non-preferred sellers and Moreover, Amazon has its own private label brands which are sold only through these preferred sellers.
Preferential Listing: Flipkart lends the word “Assured Seller” and Amazon lends the word “Fulfilled” to the products sold by its preferred sellers such as Vision Star, Flashstar Commerce, and Flashtech Retail and allegedly creates a bias in favor of preferred sellers to the detriment of other sellers.
Market Power: Amazon and Flipkart are able to cross-subsidize because of the huge amount of funding received from their investors.
Both Flipkart and Amazon are alleged to be jointly dominant in the relevant market and are stated to be abusing their dominance and they have extremely high market shares in the relevant market, Due to deep pockets, OPs are able to facilitate their sellers’ predatory pricing on their respective platforms and the ability to unilaterally terminate agreements with their sellers without any reason and treat them arbitrarily.
The CCI directed the DG to cause an investigation to be made into the matter under the provisions of Section 26(1) of the Act. The Commission also directs the DG to complete the investigation and submit the investigation report within a period of 60 days from the receipt of this order.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the Judgment
