Retail traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has written to the Competition Watchdog, seeking urgent steps in the long-pending Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh case involving the anti-competitive practices of Flipkart and Amazon. “The Competition Commission of India (CCI) must attach utmost priority to the case and pass final penalty order and direction to Flipkart and Amazon to stop their illegal activities, as the outcome of the case has a serious bearing on the survival of lakhs of retailers and their families,” said the CAIT letter from its National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal to the CCI chief Ravneet Kaur. Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh had, in November 2019, filed a case against Flipkart and Amazon, alleging that they are indulging in serious anti-competitive practices that led to closure of business of lakhs of its members who used to earn their livelihood through retail business.

These foreign entities (Flipkart and Amazon) have indulged in monopolisation of sales of mobile phones through exclusive launch, said the CAIT letter. Some entities/ sellers were created just for the purpose of invoicing with the sole aim to sell the inventory of the Flipkart/ Amazon in the name of such entities/ sellers, said the CAIT letter.

Their business model is so distorted that almost all the sales on these platforms is done by their own sellers and the millions of other sellers registered on their platforms are just to show that they are operating an e-commerce marketplace, CAIT letter said. Passage of every month would mean allowing the anti-competitive practices to the tune of ₹ 25000 crore by Flipkart and Amazon and a corresponding loss of livelihood of retailers and small traders, according to CAIT.

Using their might, both Flipkart and Amazon stalled the investigation for more than 20 months by filing frivolous litigations, said CAIT. “We recently learnt that the investigation in the case has already been completed and the report has been submitted”, CAIT letter added.

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