CAIT and AIMRA accuse e-commerce giants of predatory pricing

Traders bodies the Confederation of All India Traders and the All India Mobile Retailers Association have urged the Competition Commission of India to immediately suspend Amazon India and Flipkart’s activities as they allege predatory pricing.  

“They [Flipkart and Amazon India] deeply indulge in predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss funding, etc,” said CAIT secretary general and BJP member of parliament Praveen Khandelwal, the Press Trust of India reported. “Whatever investment they are bringing that is being used to burn cash, to fund losses they accrue during their operations in India.”
 
CAIT and AIMRA presented their concerns to the CCI in a white paper which details their posited effects of Amazon India and Flipkart on India’s retail sector, ET Bureau reported. The white paper also alleged that the businesses have violated foreign direct investment policies with their India operations.
 
“It looks that there is a cartel between e-commerce players, the brands, and the banks,” said Khandelwal. “They are hand-in-gloves to capture the market by various means but mainline retailers will not allow this to happen. We are not against e-commerce but we want a level playing field and fair means of doing business.”
 
Both Flipkart and Amazon India have previously asserted they they operate fully legally in the Indian market. CAIT has held numerous protests over recent years against the two US-owned e-commerce giants.