CCI urges Karnataka High Court to stop protecting Amazon, Flipkart’s ‘preferred sellers’

Senior Advocate on Thursday KG RaghavanAppearing in court on behalf of one of the petitioner sellers, the CCI, under the Competition Act 2002, held that a seller at first glance case exists.

In the present case, in January 2022, CCI initiated an investigation only against Amazon and Flipkart and ranked them as opposing parties No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. Raghavan said the alleged preferred sellers were treated merely as third parties and were asked to cooperate with the investigation.

In August this year, the Directorate General issued a notice to the petitioners requesting them to provide information as third parties. Later, on August 28, the General Directorate notified the sellers that they were shown as the opposing party. This was in violation of Regulation 24 of the Competition Commission of India (General) Regulations; This regulation requires the Directorate General to obtain written permission from the CCI to change the status of a party from a third party to an opposing party during an investigation. argued Raghavan.