New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the request submitted by the Department of E-Commerce Amazon and Flipkart who tried to stop antitrust investigations on their business practices.
The upper court stated that the two companies must face an investigation by the Indian Competition Commission (CCI) for the anti-competition agreement.
“As a large e-commerce organization you have to volunteer for antimonopolic investigations but you object,” said the Head of Justice India (CJI) NV Ramana-LED Bench.
Previously, the Karnataka High Court had rejected the petition that challenged the CCI probe for alleged anti-competitive practices.
Then, Amazon and Flipkart challenged the decision of the High Court, which was dismissed by SC today.
Also read the Amazon court court, Flipkart Walmart offer to stop the Probethe Antitrust Karnataka High Court on Friday rejected the petition by Amazon.com Inc.
and Flipkart Walmart who was looking for the revocation of a single judge’s decision to allow antitrust investigations to continue.
CCI last year ordered an investigation after charges of brick and mortar retailers promoted by US companies promoting sellers on their e-commerce platforms and used for competing business practices.
The company denies any mistakes and has repeatedly tried to install a legal challenge against the probe.
The CCI investigation is the main setback for Amazon and Flipkart, which wrestles with the prospect of regulations and allegations of e-commerce that are harder than brick retailers and mortars that are imposed by Indian companies by creating complex business structures.
The company faces several accusations in this case, including exclusive mobile launches, select seller promotions on their websites and Discount Practices that expel competition.
Last month, the Minister of Trade Piyush Goyal had attacked the US e-commerce giant to submit a legal challenge and failed to comply with CCI investigations.
Amazon faces another CCI challenge, with the supervisor accusing the company to hide facts and make false submissions when looking for approval for 2019 transactions with Indian companies.
(With input from agency)