MUMBAI: Ahead of a crucial hearing in the Supreme Court today, e-commerce giant Amazon has in a public notice reserved the right to civil and criminal legal recourse against Future Retail Ltd and its promoters for the transfer of its retail assets to RIL in a "clandestine" manner.
"FRL and its promoters have consistently acted in violation of the order passed by the emergency arbitrator and reaffirmed by the Arbitral Tribunal. It has now come to light that FRL and its promoters have been attempting to remove the substratum of the dispute by purportedly transferring and alienating FRL's retail assets comprising the retail stores in favour of the MDA Group," reads the notice.
MDA refers to Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani. The notice comes at the conclusion of a 10-day window given by the SC to the warring Amazon and Future group to resolve their differences out of court.
The notice further reads," ...it may be noted that FRL and its promoters made false submissions before the Hon'ble Supreme Court that the retail assets would continue to vest in FRL until the scheme of arrangement with MDA Group was finally approved by the NCLT. These false statements were made knowingly as FRL was on the verge of purportedly allowing handing over of the retail assets to the MDA Group."
The dispute surfaced in 2020 after Future group struck a deal with RIL to transfer its retail assets to the oil to telecom to retail behemoth . Amazon contested the deal in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre on the ground that the deal violated contractual agreements entered between itself and Future Coupons, which upheld its contention. This was later enforced by an arbitrator tribunal.
Amazon had purchased a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons which gave it an indirect stake in Future Retail, including the right of first refusal in case FRL decided to sell its assets.
The anti -monopoly regulator CCI in December last year suspended its approval for the deal between Amazon and Future Coupons and slapped a penalty on Amazon for suppressing material particulars . Amazon moved the NCLAT against the suspension.