Flipkart, Amazon appeal for cancellation of CCO probe

Challenging the Karnataka High Court order, Flipkart and Amazon India have appealed to the division bench to stall the Competition Commission of India (CCI) probe on the ecommerce majors. The Karnataka High Court had last week dismissed a plea by Flipkart and Amazon India to stall investigations on them by the CCI on charges of deep discounting and biased treatment towards select sellers.

CCI had had ordered a probe against the two companies in January last year, saying it had "prima facie" evidence to begin an investigation under Section 26 (1) of the Competition Act, 2002. Amazon and Flipkart protested saying the regulator should have consulted the companies and allowed them to make their case before ordering a probe.

Apart from the allegation of deep discounting, small online sellers and offline traders have been complaining of preferential treatment by e-tailers to certain vendors. In this regard, they cited Cloudtail and Appario Retail, among the largest sellers on Amazon India, which also owns minority stakes in them. Certain sellers on Flipkart have also been named in the complaints to CCI, saying they were working very closely with the e-tailer to control inventory and pricing among other things.