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Amazon Faces New Antitrust Challenge From Indian Online Sellers: Report

More than 2,000 online sellers have filed antitrust proceedings against Amazon in India. The Allegation says that the US company favours some retailers whose online discounts drive independent vendors out of business, a legal filing seen by Reuters showed.

The case presents a brand new regulatory problem for Amazon in India, the place it has dedicated $6.5 billion (roughly Rs. 48,319 crores) in funding however is battling a fancy regulatory atmosphere.

In January, the Indian Competition Commission (CCI) ordered an investigation into Amazon and rival Flipkart, which belongs to Walmart, for alleged violations of competition law and certain discounting practices that Amazon is questioning, according to court records.

In the most recent case, the All India Online Vendors Association, whose members sell goods on Amazon and Flipkart, alleged that Amazon was engaged in unfair business practices.

The group claims that the wholesale arm of Amazon India buys goods in bulk from manufacturers and sells them at a loss to sellers like Cloudtail. Such sellers then offer goods on Amazon.in with great discounts.

“This anticompetitive agreement … is foreclosing competition by forcing independent sellers out of the market,” the group claimed in a Reuters report filed on Aug. 10 with CCI.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said that it complies with all Indian laws and treats all sellers on its platform equally.

A Cloudtail spokeswoman said she “complied with all applicable laws in her facility”.

In contrast to Indian legal proceedings, filings and details of cases that have been examined by the Chamber of Commerce are not published. In the coming weeks, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce will examine the case and may decide to open a more comprehensive investigation or to reject it.

The CCI did not respond to a request for comment.

Chanakya Basa, an attorney for the sales group, confirmed the filing of the case with the Chamber of Commerce, but declined to elaborate.

Indian regulations allow Amazon to operate an e-commerce marketplace where sellers can list goods for a fee.

The vendor group additionally alleges that Amazon fees decrease charges to chose sellers, which successfully makes it tough for unbiased on-line retailers to compete on its web site.

Cloudtail, one in every of Amazon’s greatest India sellers, pays a price to Amazon of 6.three % for digital merchandise, whereas unbiased sellers pay roughly 28.1 %, the group alleged in its submitting.

Amazon has mentioned it helps to offer an e-commerce platform in India to greater than 650,000 sellers who make their very own pricing selections whereas itemizing items.


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