CCI’s Plea To Transfer The Amazon And Flipkart Cases Will be Heard By The Supreme Court
Last Updated on December 13, 2024 by Arti Kumari
The Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) motion to transfer writ petitions contesting the investigation against e-commerce behemoths Amazon and Flipkart will shortly be heard by the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General for India (AG), R Venkatramani, told the CJI Sanjiv Khanna bench today that the transfer requests should be heard before December 17 because the Karnataka High Court will then be considering petitions from Amazon and its sellers at that time.
In response, the CJI stated that he had already scheduled a hearing for the case. “I have already marked the matter, please check-up the list, we have already done that”
To avoid multiple procedures, the CCI has filed a transfer plea in the Apex Court, asking for the transfer of 24 writ petitions filed by Amazon/Flipkart and its vendors in different High Courts throughout the nation to either the Delhi High Court or the CCI itself.
The aforementioned writ petitions are a result of the CCI’s 2020 ruling, which was issued under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act and directed the Director General to look into the accusations made against Flipkart and Amazon.
Amazon and Flipkart filed writ petitions against the 2020 CCI order, but the Karnataka High Court’s single bench of Justice PS Dinesh Kumar dismissed them in June 2021, stating that “it would be unwise to prejudge the issues raised by the petitioners in these writ petitions at this stage and scuttle the investigation.”
A High Court division bench made up of Justices Satishchandra Sharma and Nataraj Rangaswamy maintained the single bench ruling, noting that “in the concerned opinion of this court by no stretch of imagination the inquiry can be crushed at this stage.” The appellants shouldn’t be afraid to answer questions from the CCI if they haven’t violated any Act of 2002 requirements. Later, in August 2021, the Apex Court declined to stop the preliminary investigation that the CCI had mandated.
Amazon, Flipkart, and a few other merchants filed lawsuits in several High Courts challenging the following CCI investigation; these applications are currently being sought to be merged and transferred.
