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Supreme Court declined to interfere with the Karnataka High Court order against E-commerce Giants - Flipkart and Amazon, seeking stay of investigation by the Competition Commission Of India, under Section 26(1) of the Act of 2002.
Court granted 4 weeks time to the companies to prepare themselves for the probe with no stay on High Court order.

A Full Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Surya Kant, hearing the matter today, said,

“Amazon and Flipkart must themselves volunteer for probe.”

The matter in challenge comes up from the Karnataka High Court order dated, May 11, 2021.

Justice PS Dinesh Kumar of the Karnataka High Court had dismissed the petitions by Amazon and Flipkart stating that the impugned order reflects adequate consideration by the CCI before proceeding with such investigation – Commission has analysed the information under various heads such as exclusive launch of mobile phones, preferred sellers on the market places, deep discounting, and preferential listing of private labels.

Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, a Society comprising of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises filed information alleging contravention of Section 3(1) read with Section 3(4) and Section 4(1) and 4(2) of the Competition Act by Amazon and Flipkart directing an investigation under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.

It is alleged that Amazon and Flipkart entered into vertical agreements with ‘preferred sellers’ which led to foreclosure of ‘non-preferred sellers’ from the Online Market places.

While dismissing the petitions, High Court acknowledging the findings of the CCI, recorded,

“It would be unwise to prejudge the issues raised by the petitioners in these writ petitions at this stage and scuttle the investigation.”

Case Title: Flipkart v. CCI | Amazon v. CCI