Some sellers that CCI reached out to have contended that the launch of smartphones on the e-commerce platforms was not accessible by independent third-party sellers.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reached out to third party sellers as part of its investigations against e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart, a report in The Economic Times said.
The issue dates back to October 2019 when the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM), a group representing small and medium business owners in the national capital, submitted a plea with CCI against the country’s two companies, accusing them of anti-competitive practices, predatory pricing and preferential treatment of sellers among others.
DVM filed the complaints under Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act. The CCI, in January 2020, directed the director-general to conduct an investigation.
This order was challenged by Amazon through a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court in February 2020. The high court put the CCI’s investigation on hold the same month. However, After months of hearing, Justice PS Dinesh Kumar dismissed the writ petition on June 11, 2021. This order was challenged by the two companies in the division bench of the same court, who has also given a green light to the investigation by the CCI.
A few hours after the Supreme Court (SC) asked the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to continue its investigation into Amazon and Flipkart, e-commerce giant Amazon said that its seven-year-long partnership with NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures would come to an end in May 2022.
Some sellers that CCI reached out to, have contended that the launch of smartphones on the e-commerce platforms was not accessible by independent third-party sellers. They also shared contracts mentioning the same in contracts between the e-commerce platforms and the sellers, the report said citing sources aware of the matter.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
“CCI’s director general (DG) essentially wanted to understand more from third-party sellers about the pain points sellers have been raising for a while now. This was part of the ongoing probe,” a person who was aware of the discussions said. “There was a discussion around how some of the top smartphones are launched and smaller sellers can’t participate in them because of marketplaces choosing large and preferred sellers for these launches.”The CCI’s secretary and the DG’s office did not respond to emails sent by the publication.
