The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to decide on the matter concerning allegations of misrepresentations by Amazon for seeking approval for its investment in Future Coupons (FCPL).

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh asked the antitrust watchdog to dispose of the matter and take a decision on the show-cause notice issued to Amazon on the issue surrounding revocation of CCI’s approval given to the US e-commerce major which has been challenged by FCPL.

Traders’ plea

The court was hearing a petition by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) seeking to protect the interest of traders who had supplied goods to the Future Group. In its PIL, CAIT prayed that it is interested in the matter to help over 6,000 small traders recover ₹10,000 crore from Future group of companies to prevent and put an end to the anti-competitive activities of Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC and its group companies.

CCI informed the court that it is contemplating calling Amazon on January 4 for a hearing on the matter.

In its plea, CAIT has alleged that Amazon obtained the approval of CCI for its investment in FCPL in 2019 by “deceit, fraud, misrepresentation and false representation.”

Referring to the ongoing bitter legal tussle between Amazon and Future Group, in a press statement on Tuesday, CAIT said that between the fights of corporate giants, traders should not be made a scapegoat or suffer financial losses.

CAIT also alleged in its statement that Amazon’s claim of control over FRL through their investment in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) is illegal as no-foreign company is allowed to own or control a multi- brand retail company such as FRL.

“Had Amazon declared their intent of such control and relevant fact in their notice to CCI at the time of seeking its approval, CCI would have never allowed such illegal transaction to happen and therefore we are expecting CCI to revoke its approval,” CAIT added.

It added that if such misrepresentations are allowed to continue, then every company would misrepresent the facts of transactions just to seek CCI’s approval and subsequently carry out a different transaction “camouflaged as a transaction approved by CCI.”