Flipkart Sellers Sued the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
In a recent turn of events, three sellers of Flipkart have sued the Competition Commission of India (CCI) with regards to the ongoing probe going on by the watchdog against Amazon and Flipkart.
The probe, which started in 2020, claims that both the e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon practiced anti-competitive practices such as giving preference to select sellers, treating ordinary sellers as mere data bases, and more.
This was first reported by Reuters. The three sellers — CIGFIL Retail, Wishery Online, and Xonique Ventures — filed the lawsuit in the Karnataka High Court and insisted that the investigation report that has been released by the CCI should be put on hold. The sellers have also reportedly highlighted that the entire investigation process by the CCI should be paused for now.
The sellers have also highlighted that while they were asked to submit relevant data to help in the investigation, they were later mentioned as accused in the ongoing probe.
In three separate court filings, the sellers reportedly mentioned, “The alleged investigation... is arbitrary, opaque, and unfair.” The hearing for the same might happen next week.
Earlier, a former Amazon seller sued the CCI with regards to the ongoing investigation. The seller, Appario Retail, also mentioned that the probe by CCI must be set aside.
Now that other sellers have also joined hands against the CCI, there is a probability that the outcome of the case will be delayed. The anti-trust probe that started in 2020 already faced several delays due to appeals by Flipkart and Amazon to overturn it. However, eventually, the CCI went ahead with its investigation and, among other things, found out that in violation of the competition law, both Flipkart and Amazon entered into exclusive agreements with smartphone companies such as Xiaomi and Samsung.
Source: Outlook Business
