NEW DELHI: In a new development in the future-Amazon case, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Thursday agreed to hear Amazon’s appeal against an order by The Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspending approval to its 2019 investment in the Future Group.
The appellate tribunal has asked CCI, Future Group and others to file their replies within 10 days and set the next hearing on Feb 2, a day before the deadline for Amazon to pay the Rs 202 crore fine. In December, 2021, the anti-trust agency had put into “abeyance” its 2019 approval for Amazon’s investment in Future Coupons (FCPL) and imposed a Rs 202 crore fine on the US company as it found that Amazon had withheld certain information concerning Amazon’s strategic interest in Future Retail.
Sources tracking the case said, Amazon last week had challenged the order asking NCLAT to review CCI’s suspension to look at the Rs 200-crore penalty. The plea was to call CCI and Future and hear everyone together so that a final order can be reached. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is also due to pass an order on Future Group’s recent petition. The apex court will decide whether FRL can complete procedural steps in its proposal to sell assets to Reliance Retail or not.
The Supreme Court has been hearing pleas including Future Group’s petition against the Delhi High Court’s order declining its plea for stay on an arbitration tribunal decision refusing to interfere with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre SIAC’s Emergency Award (EA), which prevented it from going ahead with the deal with Reliance Retail.
The dispute between Future group and Amazon started when the e-commerce giant dragged the latter to arbitration at SIAC in October 2020. Amazon argued that FRL violated their contract by entering into a deal for the sale of its assets to Reliance Retail on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,500 crore.