- A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned the country head of Amazon India, Amit Aggarwal, as well as Future Group officials to its office later this week, in connection with the e-commerce giant’s contentious deal with Future Coupons, it has come to light that the Jeff Bezos promoted company wrote to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) asking it to cancel the Reliance Industries (RIL)-Future Retail deal.
- According to a Reuters report, citing the letter written on Wednesday last week, Amazon argued that the $3.4 billion deal was “illegally obtained” and a “nullity in the eyes of law” as the Singapore arbitration panel’s order last year, in favour of Amazon, was still in force. Amazon has also sought an in-person meeting with the CCI to present its case on why the RIL-Future Retail deal should be cancelled.
- Interestingly, while the Supreme Court in August upheld the arbitration panel’s decision preventing Future Retail from going ahead with its decision to merge with Reliance Retail — RIL’s wholly owned subsidiary — the CCI had cleared the deal. Amazon, which has successfully used its deal with Future Coupons to block Future Retail’s merger with RIL, is also facing allegations of concealing and misrepresenting facts for its 2019 deal with the Future Coupons.
