CAIT welcomes High Court’s order dismissing stay against Amazon, Flipkart investigation
   Date :12-Jun-2021

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The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Friday welcomed the Karnataka High Court’s judgment dismissing the petition of Amazon and Flipkart and the stay granted on an investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against e-commerce companies’ business model in India.
“It fully vindicates the stand of CAIT that Amazon and Flipkart business model is entirely based on violating the FDI policy, rules and other laws and therefore without wasting any more time, the CCI should immediately begin its probe,” said B C Bhartia, National President of CAIT and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General.
CCI found a prima facie case for investigation against Amazon and Flipkart for violating competition law and distorting the level playing field in January 2020. However Amazon and Flipkart had approached the Karnataka High Court in February 2020 and obtained a stay on the probe. The CCI approached the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka High Court to hear the matter. Thereafter the matter was heard for nearly 40 days by the Karnataka High Court and order was reserved in April which was pronounced on Friday.
Bhartia and Khandelwal while welcoming the court order said that with the pronouncement of judgment there is no bar for conducting investigations into business model of Amazon and Flipkart and therefore, the CCI should immediately take necessary steps to investigate Amazon and Flipkart business practices and their business model in India, through which they are continuing with mal-practicesand dodging the law, rules and policies of the country. Further, it is for both the central and State Governments to bring to the books, the people who are continuously violating the law and the rules and speedy actions should be immediately
taken against Amazon, Flipkart and others.
Both Bhartia and Khandelwal said that foreign companies particularly in the e-commerce sector have been taking India as a banana republic where the laws, policies and the rules have no sanctity and they have been provided with impunity to manipulate them according to their wish.
Bhartia and Khandelwal urged the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to immediately release much awaited New Press Note replacing Press Note No.2 of the FDI Policy blocking the escape routes for these foreign funded e-commerce companies and the laws, rules and policies of the Government should be obeyed both in letter and spirit as reinforced by Goyal several times on various national and international forums in the last more than two years.