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India's antitrust chief advises ecommerce companies to avoid unfair business practices

Tuesday 14 January 2020 10:46 CET | News

India’s antitrust chairman has advised big ecommerce companies not to offer steep discounts as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) launched a probe into Amazon.com and Walmart’s Flipkart.

Furthermore, they must disclose discounting policies and ensure they do not drive brick-and-mortar rivals out of business. The remarks come ahead of a visit by Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos to India - one likely to be marked by tension with the country’s small business owners planning protests in 300 cities as they step up their campaign against what they see as unfair business practices, according to Reuters.

On one side, Amazon has committed USD 5.5 billion in India investments, while Walmart in 2018 pumped in USD 16 billion to buy a majority stake in Flipkart, its biggest deal. On the other, groups representing more than 70 million brick-and-mortar retailers say both companies violate India’s foreign investment rules which were aimed at preventing sharp online discounts.

The companies deny the allegations. The CCI has asked its investigations arm to complete the probe within 60 days but typically such probes take much longer.
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Keywords: Competition Commission of India, antitrust, ecommerce, Amazon, Flipkart, brick and mortar, India
Categories: Payments & Commerce
Companies:
Countries: India
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Payments & Commerce