Former top Amazon seller in India appeals for setting aside an antitrust investigation that found the US e-commerce company and some of its sellers breached local competition laws, court records showed on Thursday.
According to Reuters, Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart have broken Indian antitrust rules as they favor some online sellers and provide them with better access, between other things, with the country’s Competition Commission of India stating this based on investigations into the case.
According to reports, the new revelations follow an investigation by Reuters in 2021 based on Amazon’s internal documents which demonstrated the firm gave special treatment for years to a few sellers on its website and used them to bypass Indian laws. Amazon denied any wrongdoing.
One of them, Appario, which has since stopped selling on Amazon, on Thursday filed a petition in Karnataka state High Court challenging the CCI to have the investigation report that names it “set aside”, according to court records. No other details were available about the cause of action.
The suit is the first legal battle against the CCI probe launched in 2020 and one of the toughest challenges Amazon may encounter in India, considered one of its most key markets.
An order of the court notes that Appario had also sought its financial statements that were filed post the conclusion of investigation related to a CCI order.
Requests for comment from Appario, Amazon, and the competition regulator went unanswered.
Amazon said it does not discriminate among sellers and complies with all legal requirements, but reported in October 2022 that Appario will within the next year end its listings on Amazon’s website.
The Reuters investigation had found that Appario was internally referred to as a “special” merchant and received reduced fees along with access to Amazon global retail tools applied to things such as inventory management. Appario was one of the sellers raided by the CCI in 2022 as part of its investigation process.
