The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain petitions by e-commerce firms, Amazon and Flipkart, challenging an order allowing the Competition Commission of India to conduct a preliminary inquiry into alleged violations of the competition law. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said challenging the probe is tantamount to seeking notice before registering an FIR under the criminal law and asked the e-commerce giants to present themselves for investigation by the CCI. .
We expect big organizations like Amazon and Flipkart to present themselves for inquiries and you don’t want that. You will have to appear and allow investigation, said the bench which also included Justices Vineet Saran and Surya Kant. After senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Flipkart, pointed out that the time for reply to CCI was expiring on August 9 itself, the bench extended the time by four more weeks, on which Solicitor General Tushar, representing CCI. Mehta objected. .
Mehta said that one week time should be given to these firms because in COVID times people mostly shop online through these companies. The Karnataka High Court on July 23 dismissed Amazon-Flipkart’s plea against the CCI probe for alleged violation of competition law.
The High Court had said that there is no need for e-commerce firms to withdraw from the investigation if they were not involved in the violation. “The investigation cannot be crushed at this stage. If the appellants are not involved in contravention of any provision of the Competition Act, they should not feel ashamed to face investigation by the Competition Commission of India.”
It had held that the appeal was devoid of merit and substance and was liable to be dismissed. The CCI’s January 2020 inquiry order followed a complaint by the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, whose members include several traders dealing in smart phones and related accessories.
Challenging the order, the two e-commerce giants had approached the Karnataka High Court, but it was dismissed by a single bench of Justice PS Dinesh Kumar observing that the issues raised by the petitioners in these writ petitions at this stage It would be unwise to preset. and failed the test.
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