NAME : Mohd. Fahad Khan ROLL. NO. : 26
Company Name : FLIPKART
• Introduction : The Competition Commission of India (CCI) announced its investigation in January 2020 after a trader group’s complaint accused FLIPKART for promoting some “preferred sellers” and hurting business for smaller sellers.
• About the Competition Act : The primary objective of Competition Act 2022 is to promote fair competition for all the participants in the market and prevent practices having an adverse effect on competition. It also aims to protect the interests of the consumers and ensures there is a freedom to trade in the market for everyone.
• About the case :
In 2018, a group of more than 200 retailers, which used to sell their products on sites such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, and others, approached the CCI with a complaint that Flipkart was adopting predatory pricing mechanisms, which resulted in losses for small retailers. The CCI’s objective is to “eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India”. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) announced its investigation in January 2020 after a trader group’s complaint accused the firms of promoting some “preferred sellers” and hurting business for smaller sellers.
In their complaint, these retailers, under the umbrella of All India Online Vendors’ Association, told CCI that Flipkart bought products from small retailers and sold them at a discounted price to WS Retail Services Private Limited and subsequently, WS Retail re-sold the same products on Flipkart’s site.
The organization also alleged that Flipkart’s operating in the market could be said to be an abuse of dominant position, and that the e-commerce company had resorted to “predatory pricing”.
A court had put the investigation on hold last year after Amazon and Flipkart challenged it saying the CCI had no evidence the e-commerce giants were harming competition.
However, in this case, Flipkart has approached the Supreme Court against the probe into its alleged abuse of dominant position in the Indian e-commerce market.
Though the company had told the CCI that WS Retail had stopped selling on Flipkart as of 2017, the anti-trust body will still have to probe the nature of predatory pricing that has been alleged against the company.
Also, An Indian court dismissed pleas of Flipkart to quash an antitrust investigation into the business practices of the Company, dealing them a blow in their key growth market.
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