India's Competition Watchdog Seeks Financial Records From Amazon, Walmart-Backed Flipkart In Ongoing Antitrust Probe: Report

This story was originally published on the Benzinga India portal.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reportedly intensified its antitrust investigation into e-commerce giants Amazon AMZN and Walmart WMT-backed Flipkart, requesting their financial statements.

What Happened: The CCI's demand for financial records from Amazon Seller Services and Flipkart Internet will play a major role in determining a potential penalty on the firms, based on the companies' defense in a four-year-long case, Mint reported.

A 2023 amendment to the competition law enables the CCI to impose a fine of up to 10% of a company's global turnover or income of the preceding three financial years for anti-competitive conduct.

The global turnover is anticipated to encompass the revenue generated by the entity in India and overseas, excluding the turnover of any sister enterprise operating in a different market. 

After CCI’s Director General of Investigation (DG) findings were reported in the media, Amazon and Flipkart raised concerns about the potential public disclosure of sensitive information in non-confidential reports.

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The DG's findings, which will serve as the foundation for CCI’s judgment on the case, examined complaints of alleged anti-competitive behavior by the two e-commerce giants. The companies will have the chance to defend their case once the confidential version of the report is shared with them.

This comes after the DG's confirmation in August of suspected violations of competition law by the two internet platforms. Practices under scrutiny include giving preferential treatment and preferential listing to certain sellers on the platform, exclusive product launches and deep discounting, which may have adversely affected small retailers on the platform and beyond.

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Disclaimer: Artificial intelligence was used as a secondary aid in writing this story.