Queency Jain –
The Karnataka High Court has dismissed Amazon India and Walmart’s Flipkart petitions challenging the investigation ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against their unfair trade practices.
Justice PS Dinesh Kumar, while dismissing the petitions, stated that it is important to support an order directing investigation with some reasoning and since the CCI has already fulfilled the criteria, it is too early to judge on the contentions raised by the petitioners through the petition.
Though Flipkart did not respond to the order, Amazon has already made it clear to file an appeal on the matter, after the Court dismissed the petition.
An order of investigation by CCI was announced in January 2020 after a trader’s group made an official complaint against the firms for promoting preferred sellers, thereby providing unfair treatment and hurting the business of small sellers.
The firms are alleged for promoting preferred sellers by launching their smartphones exclusively on the website and providing extra discount offers thereby prioritizing the list of few sellers over the others which is a clear violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act.
In February 2020, the order of investigation was put on stay by the Karnataka High Court but after the CCI made an appeal against the stay in Supreme Court, the appeal was referred back to the Karnataka High Court.
The matter is currently under investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).