Ahead of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ visit, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered investigation against Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart on complaints of deep discounting practices and tie-ups with preferred sellers.
The anti-trust watchdog said it had found prima facie evidence necessitating a probe by the director general (DG)-investigation to look into alleged anti-competition discounts by the two online marketplaces. The CCI has directed the DG office to complete the probe within 60 days.
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“We will get to understand the entire business model of the e-commerce sector through this investigation. This is the first time we are probing an e-commerce company,” Ashok Gupta, chairman, CCI, told Business Standard.
The country’s e-commerce, estimated at around $40-billion, makes up for less than 10 per cent of the retail pie, estimated at close to $700 billion. In the past, the CCI, after studying the e-commerce deep discounting matter, had said it was not a competition issue.
Source: Business Standard
