New Delhi: This marks the end of a collaboration between Amazon.com Inc. and one of its largest sellers in India, Cloudtail, which was coming to an end on May 19, before their partnership was renewed.
A joint venture between Amazon and India’s Catamaran called Priyan Business Services Ltd., the parent of Cloudtail India, announced the development through a joint statement, saying they mutually agreed to extend the contract no further than that date. decided to increase.
What inspired the ending?
The decision about non-renewal of the contract comes after a Reuters investigation in February based on Amazon documents showing that the US company had favored a small group of sellers, including Cloudtail, over the years, and their Used to bypass Indian. According to the agency law.
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Amazon, on the other hand, insisted not to offer preferential treatment to any seller, saying it complies with the law. This comes on the back of the Supreme Court ruling that the e-commerce giant Will face antitrust investigation on Amazon and Flipkart The Competition Commission of India (CCI) dismissed the companies’ petitions to quash the investigation.
Although both companies Amazon and Catamaran did not explicitly give a reason for ending the relationship, they said the partnership lasted successfully for seven years and made “tremendous progress”.
Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd will cease operations in May next year. This had attracted criticism with Indian brick-and-mortar retailers accusing Amazon of preferring it to smaller retailers.
Cloudtail’s joint venture came into existence when Amazon partnered with an entity created by none other than tech mogul NR Narayana Murthy. The company started offering goods on Amazon.in after it was established in August 2014.
According to a Reuters investigation conducted in February, it was revealed that Amazon had publicly named Cloudtail as an independent seller offering merchandise on its Marketplace website, but internal company documents revealed that the US etailer was its owner. Was working towards expanding and was used to prevent this, among other vendors. Foreign investment laws of the country.
The revelation led to the addition of an Amazon investigation, and other agencies looked into its findings.
The investigation also found that Amazon had waived fees to another seller named Appario. As Reuters reports, Amazon is considering whether to be in talks with Appario’s parent to renew their joint venture next year. With this move, many sellers in India will get a chance to overtime Cloudtail’s stake on Amazon.in.
Separately, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart will face antitrust investigations ordered against them in India, hitting companies in their key growth market.
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