E-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart have lost their legal battle in the High Court of Karnataka as even a division bench has upheld the Competition Commission of India’s decision to conduct an investigation through its Director General into whether they had entered into anti-competitive agreements in violation of the provisions of the Competition Act 2002.
Observing that the enquiry initiated by the CCI cannot be crushed at the initial stage, the division bench has described the approach of both the e-commerce majors as ‘an attempt to ensure that the enquiry does not attain finality’.
The division bench comprising Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy delivered the verdict on July 23 while upholding the June 11 verdict of a single judge bench, which had upheld the CCI’s decision. Amazon and Flipkart had appealed against the single judge bench’s order.
The CCI had acted on a complaint by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM), which had alleged that Amazon and Flipkart were giving preference to select sellers and offering deep discounts after entering into anti-competitive agreements.
