look news india
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will summon executives of Amazon and Flipkart for questioning to probe alleged violations of foreign investment laws after raids on sellers of several e-commerce companies in the country.
The ED had earlier submitted a report that the investigation by India’s antitrust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) had revealed that both the companies violated the law by favoring select sellers for their e-commerce sales. The inventory is controlled by this e-commerce firm by giving benefits to selected sellers. Notably, as per Indian law, foreign e-commerce operators are restricted from listing the goods that they can sell through their website. The investigation signals increased regulatory scrutiny of Flipkart and Amazon. Especially when their sales are increasing rapidly in the $70 billion e-commerce market.
The documents seized from the vendors during the raid are currently being reviewed by the ED. ED plans to further investigate violations of foreign investment law by summoning Amazon, Flipkart executives for questioning. The raids continued till last Saturday. And it was also confirmed that foreign investment rules had been violated.
Raid timeline
Last year, Flipkart’s share in India’s e-commerce sector was 32 percent and Amazon’s 24 percent.
Two Amazon and four Flipkart sellers were raided last week
The raid was conducted based on details revealed in the antitrust investigation conducted against Amazon and Flipkart.
Aporio, Amazon’s largest seller in India, was among those raided last week.
