The Supreme Court on Monday gave two weeks to Amazon to file its response to a petition filed by a promoter firm of Future Retail in the Competition Commission of India (CCI), providing the US ecommerce major with a breather in a case that the antitrust watchdog was supposed to wind up this week.
The apex court, however, refused to interfere further in the Delhi High Court’s November 16 ruling, which had asked the CCI to dispose of the case within two weeks. The Confederation of All India Traders had approached the high court with public interest litigation, seeking a direction to the CCI to expedite its ruling in a March application filed by Future Coupons (FCPL).
Amazon and the Future Group did not respond to ET’s queries till press time Monday.
At the CCI, Future Coupons had accused the US ecommerce giant of concealing facts and flouting India’s foreign direct investment and foreign exchange laws while seeking the watchdog’s approval in 2019 for investment in the promoter company of Future Retail. Citing that investment and the agreement signed by the two companies at the time, Amazon had opposed the proposed sale of the assets of Future Retail to Reliance Retail.
“Taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of this case, two more weeks’ time from today is granted to the petitioner (Amazon) in the matter, which would be over and above the time already granted by the high court in this behalf. The petitioner would be at liberty to raise all the objections before CCI. The said commission would consider all the objections on its own merits and in accordance with the law,” the Supreme Court’s order on Monday said.
In its special leave petition in the top court, Amazon said that the traders’ body had filed the PIL in the high court with an “ulterior motive to interfere in a private transaction”. Amazon said the high court had passed the directions to the CCI “without even considering” the US company.
