Piyush Goyal, Commerce and industry minister, has warned e-commerce companies of strict action if they don’t halt predatory pricing on their platforms, flouting foreign direct investment (FDI) rules. According to media reports, Flipkart and Amazon have grossed up over USD 3 billion in gross merchandise value during the festive sales.
Goyal said his ministry has received complaints from the trader’s body CAIT alleging violations of norms by these players. ”A detailed questionnaire has been sent to them. Today or tomorrow, a supplementary questionnaire will also be sent. We will take stringent action against them if there is a violation of any law in a letter or in spirit. The law is clear. Action will be taken as per the law,” Goyal said.
Moreover, The Competition Commission of India said that these e-commerce majors were not dominant among online marketplace platforms and therefore they didn’t contravene Section 4 of the Competition Act that basically deals with anti-competitive issues.
“We continue to engage with the government and have emphasized how we have consistently worked closely with local Kirana stores and other small businesses in the last six years, we have over 23,000 Kirana stores as IHS (I Have Space) stores across 350 cities, over 14,000 Amazon Easy stores across 22 states and nearly 60% of our top 2,000 sellers are offline retailers.” an Amazon spokesperson told Economic Times.
