SC Refuses To Interfere In CCI Probe Challenged By Amazon & Flipkart For Competition Law Violations

The apex court has declined to interfere with CCI probe against Amazon and Flipkart.

Image: PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has declined to interfere with the Competition Commission of India's investigation against e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart for alleged competition law violations.

The apex court has also extended the time by four weeks for the companies to join the investigation.

The e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart had challenged the orders of the Karnataka High Court which refused to interfere with the preliminary inquiry ordered by the CCI into their alleged anti-competitive practices

The Karnataka High Court (HC) on Friday quashed Amazon India and Flipkart’s appeal against the investigation by antitrust Competition Commission of India (CCI) for violations of competition law.

A single-judge bench had dismissed Amazon and Flipkart’s writ petition on June 11 after which both the tech giants had moved to the Supreme Court citing that their cases weren't heard on 'merit'.

In the past hearings, legal counsels of both Flipkart and Amazon have argued that the CCI has deviated from its own practice; and commissioned an investigation into the e-commerce entities without any clear evidence.

The high court had said that the e-commerce firms had no need to shy away from an inquiry if they were not involved in violations.

"The inquiry cannot be crushed at this stage. If the appellants aren't involved in violations of any provisions of the competition law, they should not feel shy in facing an inquiry by the Competition Commission of India," the bench had observed.

It had added that the appeals were devoid of merits and substance and deserved to be dismissed.

How did the matter come to light?

The CCI's January 2020 probe order had followed a complaint by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, whose members comprise many traders dealing in smartphones and related accessories.

The CCI ordered an investigation against e-commerce players, earlier this year, after the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, a traders’ body, filed a complaint against the firms’ practices like giving deep discounts on online sales of smartphones and cherry-picking sellers.

Challenging the order, the two e-commerce giants had approached the Karnataka High Court but a single-judge bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar had dismissed it saying that it would be unwise to prejudge the issues raised by the petitioners in these writ petitions at this stage and scuttle the investigation.