The difficulties for the top two E-commerce players in India- Amazon and Flipkart are set to rise as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is set to hasten an investigation into allegations of “anti-competitive behaviour” by the two firms. The information was revealed in a report by news agency Reuters. While the probe was started by the CCI last year, it was stuck in legal challenges mounted by Amazon and Walmart owned Flipkart. Only last week was the competition regulator allowed to resume its investigation.
The investigation is being carried out on the basis of a complaint that accused the two E-commerce players of promoting some selected sellers on their platforms. It also said that by offering deep discounts to customers, they were stifling their competitors.
The CCI now plans to ask for information relating to the allegations from Amazon and Flipkart as soon as possible. While such investigations in India take a long time to get completed, the CCI plans to expedite the investigation. The competition regulator is recruiting more officers and tightening deadlines to ensure cases involving big technology companies are investigated faster, sources told Reuters.
The “anti-competition” investigation against Amazon and Flipkart is part of the increased scrutiny the Big Tech is facing in India. Facebook and Twitter are already in disagreement with the new IT rules formulated by the government. A Parliamentary committee has summoned Twitter officials on June 18 on concerns over “misuse of social media and online news.” Google, already facing probes over Android and its payments app may soon have to respond to an antitrust investigation by the CCI on allegations of misuse of its position as the provider of Android operating system in smart TV’s.
