A prominent group of Indian retailers on Wednesday asked the government to ban the operations of e-commerce giant Amazon in India after a Reuters report indicated that for several years, the company has been providing preferential treatment to a group of sellers on its Indian platform and used them to dodge the strict FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) regulations.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) demanded serious action against Amazon. In a statement, CAIT said that “the shocking revelations” in the Reuters report are “sufficient enough to immediately ban operations of Amazon in India.” It said: “For years, CAIT has been maintaining that Amazon has been circumventing FDI laws of India to conduct unfair and unethical trade.” The body called on India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to take note of this “important and burning issue and order for a ban on operations of Amazon in India.” CAIT has pledged to raise the issue in a bigger way.
A little after CAIT’s statement, Amazon through its Amazon India News Twitter handle, while retweeting the Reuters report said, “The story is unsubstantiated, incomplete, factually incorrect. Amazon remains compliant with Indian laws. We haven’t seen the documents and Reuters hasn’t shared provenance to confirm veracity: the details are likely supplied with intent to create sensation and discredit Amazon.”
According to media reports, Amazon in a written report said that the company “does not give preferential treatment to any seller on its marketplace and treats all sellers in a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner, with each seller responsible for independently determining prices and managing their inventory.”
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