Indian antitrust watchdog reportedly raids Amazon, Flipkart’s biggest sellers

• CCI has reportedly raided top domestic sellers on Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday morning.
• The raids were in line with the accusation of competition law violations, according to media reports.
• The raids were carried out in New Delhi and Bengaluru.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reportedly raided top domestic sellers on Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday morning. The raids were in line with the accusation of competition law violations, a report by Reuters citing multiple sources revealed.

The report noted that offices of both Cloudtail and Appario — the top sellers on Amazon where the US-based ecommerce giant also holds indirect equity stake — were raided. The details of Flipkart sellers haven’t been released yet.

One of the sources also told Reuters that the raids were carried out in New Delhi and Bengaluru. The raids were in relation to an investigation antitrust watchdog CCI ordered in January 2020.

Business Insider has reached out to Amazon and Flipkart seeking more details.

Indian retailers and associations have time and again accused ecommerce giants — Amazon and Flipkart — of favouring certain large sellers over others. The Indian foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines prohibit foreign-funded companies from giving preferential treatment to any sellers or selling their own products on these platforms.

The sellers, including the Confederation of All India traders (CAIT), has also accused Amazon and Flipkart of carrying out deep discounting, predatory pricing and other practices that create an unlevel playing field for the small sellers. The organisation has also reached out to multiple agencies and government departments highlighting the issue.

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