Supreme Court Extends Relief To Amazon In Future Coupons Case

The Supreme Court on Friday extended its stay on the Rs 202 crore penalty imposed on Amazon.com NV Holdings LLC by the Competition Commission of India.

This means that the recovery of the penalty will not be undertaken until the next date of hearing.

The top court had earlier granted a stay in May, which was extended in July. The stay will now continue up until the final hearing, which is scheduled to come up in December.

In 2021, the competition regulator suspended the 2019 approval of the Future Group-Amazon deal. The CCI had stated that Amazon had failed to identify and notify strategic interest in Future Retail Ltd. back in 2019.

The commission had found that Amazon's stake in Future Retail Ltd., which operates the Big Bazaar store chain, had not been appropriately disclosed.

Amazon was handed a penalty of Rs 202 crore by the regulator for failing to announce the shareholder agreement involving Future Retail.

According to the CCI, Amazon pretended to be interested in Future Coupons when it was actually interested in Future Retail, and the investment in the former was to get a foot in the door in India's retail business.