To Calculate Fines in an Antitrust Lawsuit, CCI Wants Amazon and Flipkart’s Transaction Data

Nitin Konde, Apoorva Bajj

Sep 24, 2024 — 2 min read

To Calculate Fines in an Antitrust Lawsuit, CCI Wants Amazon and Flipkart’s Transaction Data

According to a report published by a renowned media house, the Competition Commission of India has entered the final stage of its anti-trust lawsuit against Amazon and Flipkart. The regulator is seeking financial documents from the two e-commerce giants to determine the penalty.

The specifics of the annual revenue will be used to assist in determining the penalties in the case that has been going on for four years after the defense of the two companies has been heard.

Fine up to 10% on Global Turnover

An update to the competition legislation was made in 2023 that allows the regulator to fine companies up to 10% of their global revenue or income from the last three fiscal years for anti-competitive actions. According to various media reports that were published earlier, the anti-trust regulator is poised to impose penalties on Amazon for alleged anti-competitive behavior. A notice was going to be published very soon, and the investigation arm of the CCI confirmed the accusations that were brought against Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd.

Ecommerce Companies in India Are Under Strict Scanner

Increased surveillance has been directed towards the Amazon in India. A question that was posed by the Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, in August was whether or not the exponential expansion of e-commerce companies in the country was a "matter of concern" or something that should be celebrated.

The government is also keeping a close eye on businesses that engage in quick trade. On 20th September a media report stated that the trade promotion organization DPIIT forwarded a complaint against rapid commerce companies that it had received from a retail sector body to the CCI. The report also stated that the commission had the option of taking suo motu notice of the matter.

What Exactly Are Investigation’s Findings?

An investigation into Amazon and Flipkart was ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the year 2020. The CCI was concerned that the two companies were reportedly giving preference to certain listings and were encouraging particular merchants with whom they had business connections.

Investigators from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) concluded that Amazon and Flipkart had developed an environment in which preferred merchants appeared higher in search results, thereby displacing other vendors. The CCI investigators made this discovery in two distinct reports, each of which was around 1,696 pages long and submitted on 9 August.

According to both findings, which are not available to the public and are being published by a renowned media house for the very first time, each of the anti-competitive practices that were said to have occurred was investigated and confirmed to be genuine.