Walmart-owned Flipkart received a jolt when the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) reportedly ordered that the ecommerce marketplace be probed its abuse of dominant position. The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) has now filed a caveat in the Supreme Court against Flipkart.
In 2018, AIOVA had earlier alleged that Flipkart had abused its powers by way of Flipkart India Pvt Ltd and Flipkart Internet Pvt Limited — with Flipkart India being engaged in the wholesale trading/ distribution of books, mobiles, computers and related accessories, and Flipkart Internet being engaged in an e-commerce marketplace business. The CCI investigated this, and gave Flipkart a clean shit the same year. AIOVA appealed this with the NCLAT, who has now directed the CCI to investigate Flipkart.
The two major e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon have been under the scanner for their business practices for more than a year now. It was earlier the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), an association of the offline retail traders in the country, which vehemently opposed the takeover of Flipkart by Walmart. After that, the CAIT knocked on the doors of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) asking it to stop the deep discounting practice which was affecting the livelihood of their members. They could not succeed much either with the CCI or the courts later.
The Union Commerce Ministry however took note of a series of complaints against the two ecommerce marketplaces and promised to hold an enquiry.
Recently, after a complaint was by the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, the Competition Commission Probe into the business practices of Amazon and Flipkart over allegations of deep discounting and predatory pricing. This was stayed by the Karnataka High Court, and Amazon’s arguments extensively relied on the clean chit Flipkart was given earlier in the complaint filed by AIOVA.
Amazon and Flipkart have repeated denied any wrongdoing and have said they always operate within the law in whichever country they operate in.