Traders Body, Confederation of All India Traders ( CAIT ) has decided to approach fair trade regulator CCI against $16 billion Walmart-Flipkart deal claiming that the agreement would lead to massive job loss and will turn out a nightmare for retail trade in the country.
It is interesting to note that US giant Walmart had approached CCI just last week to garner approval for its mega Flipkart buyout stating that it doesn’t raise any competition concerns.
Meanwhile, the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) industry body on Monday has also moved to Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Flipkart India Pvt Ltd. a wholesale company, for allegedly abusing its dominant position on Flipkart’s online marketplace.
The body has claimed that Flipkart India Pvt Ltd. sources goods from various brands and sells it to bodies like WS Retail Pvt Ltd including others who eventually sell the goods to customers on Flipkart.com that runs under the roof of the company.
AIOVA says that such “discriminatory conduct and preferential treatment” is prohibited under Competition Act and is killing many independent sellers who depend on its platform for their livelihood. Hence, it has asked CCI to prevent Flipkart from selling its goods at a discounted price to sellers who then move to Flipkart.com.
Additionally, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also written to commerce minister Suresh Prabhu seeking answers to what steps the government has taken to scrutinise the deal.
Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General at CAIT that important issues catering to cybersecurity, FDI policy, apprehensions of using e-commerce in retail are involved with the deal and hence government must thoroughly scrutinise the deal in depth.
“It is highly regretted that so far the government has not taken any step to consult the traders despite lodging their objections with the commerce ministry. Such an attitude indicates the turning balance towards MNCs at the cost of ignoring the domestic retail trade. It appears that government has taken a U-turn on its declared commitment to no encouragement to FDI in retail.”, he said