Supreme Court Transfers Amazon, Flipkart Antitrust Cases To Karnataka High Court

The Supreme Court on Monday transferred all cases pertaining to the antitrust probe launched against e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart before the Karnataka High Court.

The Competition Commission of India was represented by the Attorney General of India, R Venkatramani, and he told the top court that five more cases have been filed in the matter, apart from the 26 existing cases going on in various high courts in the country.

The court said that all cases, including the newly filed five cases, will be heard by the Karnataka High Court.

If any additional cases are filed in the antitrust probe before any other high court of the country, the same would also be heard by the Karnataka High Court, the top court said.

It is crucial to note that investigation in the probe has come to a standstill by virtue of stay orders passed by the high courts, and this was the primary reason the CCI was keen on the consolidation of cases before the Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court. 

Though CCI's request for clubbing of cases has been accepted by the top court, the regulator's forum of choice has not been accepted.

The issue dates back to 2019 when the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, an organisation of smartphone and related accessories traders, made serious allegations of anti-competitive practices against major e-commerce platforms, Amazon and Flipkart.

There were allegations against these e-commerce giants for giving preferred treatment to some e-tailers, including Cloudtail India Pvt., Samsung India Electronics Pvt., Vivo Mobile India Pvt., and Appario Retail Pvt.

It was alleged that almost all sales on these platforms are done by their own preferred sellers which has led to the closure of businesses for lakhs of other sellers on these marketplaces.

In 2020, the regulator ordered an investigation into the alleged use of exclusive arrangements, deep discounting, and preferential listing by Amazon and Flipkart as an exclusionary tactic to eliminate competition.

However, the issue has come to a standstill since then by virtue of stay orders passed by the high courts on the investigation process.

During the last hearing before the apex court on Friday, the court said that it was not inclined to give special treatment to the CCI and said that it would not be transferring the cases before itself or before the Delhi High Court.

However, the court suggested that the cases could be clubbed and transferred before the single judge bench of the Karnataka High Court.