Trade groups demand suspension of Amazon and Flipkart over antitrust violations | News

A lawmaker from India’s ruling party and a major retail group on Friday urged the government to shut down the operations of Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart amid antitrust violations.

Non-public Indian antitrust investigation reports have found that Amazon and Flipkart violated local competition laws by favoring select sellers and giving priority to certain offers, thereby damaging competition, Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday.

Praveen Khandelwal, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, told Reuters he would soon hold talks with India’s federal government and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to demand action, including the “immediate cessation” of e-commerce companies’ operations in India.

“The practices of these companies are causing enormous damage to our manufacturing sector,” he said.

Neither Goyal’s office nor Flipkart and Amazon India responded to requests for comment.

The two companies have previously denied any wrongdoing and said they comply with Indian laws. They have not commented on the Competition Commission of India (CCI) reports.

Khandelwal is also the emeritus general secretary of the powerful Indian Confederation of All India Traders, which represents around 80 million shop owners and has been protesting for years against the business practices of Amazon and Flipkart, which they say harm smaller retailers.

The CCI’s findings follow a 2021 Reuters investigation based on internal Amazon documents that showed that for years the company gave preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its platform – some of them called “special merchants” – and used them to circumvent Indian laws.

Wholesalers and retailers are considered to be the most important voting bloc for Modi’s ruling party and the results of the survey come ahead of important state elections in the industrial centers of Maharashtra and Haryana.

Last month, Commerce Minister Goyal publicly criticised Amazon, saying that the company’s investments often covered losses and the funds were “not being used for great achievements”.

First published: September 13, 2024 | 4:17 p.m. IS