CCI Okays Amazon's Proposal To Buy Prione Business Services

Prione owns Cloudtail, which is one of the biggest and most profitable retailers on Amazon India

In December last year, Amazon had said that they would acquire Prione Business Services, subject to the requisite regulatory approvals. Image: Getty

New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given approval to Amazon’s proposal to acquire Catamaran Ventures’ entire stake in Prione Business Services, the joint venture (JV) between Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures and the US-based e-commerce giant.

Prione owns Cloudtail, which is one of the biggest and most profitable retailers on Amazon India.

The anti-trust watchdog in a tweet said, "Commission approves acquisition of Prione Business Services Private Limited by Amazon Asia-Pacific Resources Private Limited."

In December last year, Amazon had said that they would acquire Prione Business Services, subject to the requisite regulatory approvals. On August 9, the partners had announced their decision to not continue the JV beyond the end of its current term in May 2022. The JV continued under the leadership of the current management and once the regulatory approvals come through the board of Prione and Cloudtail was expected to complete the transaction in compliance with the applicable laws.

According to news reports, senior executives of Amazon India are expected to hold a meeting this week on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents nearly 7 crore traders in the country, has crticised the CCI for dropping a probe against Amazon for "violating certain laws pertaining to selling private labels on its portal".

The CAIT termed the CCI as a spineless, toothless body incapable of discharging duties as an anti-trust regulator. The traders’ body alleged that issues were kept pending for a longer period and by that time, the issue already caused damage to the affected party.

CAIT has demanded an in-depth study of working of the CCI and remedial measures to make it a more efficient and accountable regulator like the Trai and Sebi.

In a joint statement, CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said, “We believe that CCI did not ask the agency to substantiate its charges referred to in its published article and an ex parte order was passed by the CCI which violates the norms of the principle of natural justice. We are at a loss to understand why the Government and government agencies are keeping a complete silence on the daylight violations of policy, rules and laws by Amazon and others.”

Bhartia and Khandelwal said that Indian traders are extremely perturbed and shocked that time and again the Indian retail ecosystem has been left vulnerable simply because CCI failed to discharge its duties.

They alleged that the CCI was supposed to ensure that the interests of all stakeholders must be protected. However, in the past 5-7 years, foreign MNCs have steamrolled their way through the Indian market, violating all laws in spirit and creating an unhealthy business environment and CCI has been a mere spectator till date not able to rein in the foreign players.