Flipkart Says Anti-Trust Probe Shouldn't Treat It The Same As Amazon

Flipkart and Amazon have denied allegations of misusing their dominant market place

Walmart's Flipkart shouldn't be handled the identical as rival Amazon in an Indian antitrust probe because the proof towards the 2 corporations was "qualitatively different", Flipkart argued in a courtroom submitting seen by Reuters.

Both Amazon and Flipkart have challenged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in courtroom as they search revocation of a courtroom's June resolution to permit an antitrust probe towards them to proceed. The corporations deny any wrongdoing.

Government has known as the US corporations smug and accused them of utilizing authorized routes to stall the investigation.

In last submissions made to a courtroom in Karnataka, the Walmart unit argued that CCI and the courtroom "confuse the facts" between the case of Amazon and Flipkart, and missed that they have been "fierce competitors".

To again its arguments, it stated {that a} enterprise settlement examined by the CCI earlier than ordering its probe was solely between Amazon and its sellers, and there was no such proof towards the Walmart unit.

"The allegations and the evidence before the CCI against the Appellant were qualitatively different from those relating to Amazon. The CCI should have independently examined the case against each of the two platforms," Flipkart stated in its 46-page submission, which was not public.

The courtroom is more likely to go a written order on the appeals in coming days.

Flipkart and Amazon didn't instantly reply to a request for remark. The CCI did not reply outdoors common enterprise hours on Sunday.

For years, Amazon and Flipkart have denied allegations from brick-and-mortar retailers about circumventing Indian legislation by creating complicated enterprise constructions.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal final month lashed out on US e-commerce giants for submitting authorized challenges and failing to adjust to the CCI's probe, saying "if they have nothing to hide why don't they respond to the CCI?"

In February, a Reuters investigation primarily based on inner Amazon paperwork confirmed the US agency for years had helped a small variety of sellers prosper on its platform in India, utilizing them to bypass international funding legal guidelines. Amazon additionally has oblique fairness stakes in two of its large on-line sellers, Cloudtail and Appario, which get "subsidised fees", Reuters reported.

The Walmart unit argued in its submission that "unlike in the case of Amazon", there have been no structural hyperlinks of any type between Flipkart and its sellers.

Flipkart "ought to have been treated differently from Amazon," it stated.

Amazon and Flipkart are main gamers in an e-retail market India forecasts can be value $200 billion by 2026.