Karnataka HC to hear CCI petition against Amazon, Flipkart in January

The Karnataka High Court will hear a petition filed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the probe against e-commerce firms Amazon and Flipkart on January 18.

This is a continuation of the matter when the Supreme Court in October declined to entertain the petition filed by CCI seeking to remove Karnataka High Court’s stay on an investigation that the watchdog had ordered against Amazon and Flipkart related to anti-competitive business practices.

This is because the matter had gone back to the Karnataka High Court. The Supreme Court had asked the Karnataka High Court to decide the CCI plea for vacating the stay on the probe against Amazon and Flipkart for the alleged anti-competitive practices. It asked the High Court to decide on the matter within a period of six weeks.

In October,  the CCI appealed in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court’s interim stay on its probe against the e-commerce firms.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents 70 million traders, said the matter was heard on Wednesday by a single-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court. It said the judge, upon hearing every party,  decided that he would hear the petition of Amazon and Flipkart for final disposal including the petition of CCI on 18 January 2021.

The trade body said the Flipkart counsel stated that for final disposal it is not required to hear the submission to be made by the trade body, which was strongly objected to by lawyers of the CAIT. The Court stated that CAIT can file its reply to the writ filed by Amazon by this weekend. 

The trade body said it is to be noted that both Amazon and Flipkart preferred to file a writ petition in February 2020 in Karnataka High Court challenging the order of investigation of CCI pursuant to an information filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM) and CAIT.  The single judge ordered a stay on the investigation,  to which the CCI filed a petition before the Supreme Court in October 2020 with the prayer for vacating the said stay.