E-commerce giant Amazon has moved the Karnataka High Court against a January 13 order of the anti-trust watchdog, Competition Commission of India, that called for a regulatory probe against the alleged malpractices of e-tailers. Amazon has sought an interim stay on the CCI order till the disposal of the writ petition.
Calling the CCI order of January 13, 2020 "perverse, arbitrary, untenable in law", Amazon said it has the potential to cause "irreversible loss and injury to the goodwill/reputation of the company."
The e-tailer said in the petition that the “present impugned order has been passed without prima facie application of mind” and also requested for “quashing / setting aside the impugned order”.
However, the Confederation of All Indian Traders (CAIT), which is a partner organisation of the Delhi Vyapar Manch (DVM), has filed a ‘caveat’ in the Karnataka High Court that mandates the court to hear both sides before passing a stay order.
“The caveat was filed in Karnataka sometime back, so it is highly unlikely that Amazon will be able to gain any instant relief/ stay order from the court. We are expecting the case to be heard either on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT said.
The CCI in its January 13 order said that its Director General would investigate the violations of Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 and submit the findings within 60 days.
The probe was initiated after the DVM accused Amazon and Flipkart of an alleged nexus with smartphone/mobile brands and selective sellers for deep discounting, predatory pricing and exclusive treatments which could adversely affect the offline markets.