Jai Raj Bhati
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) had filed a petition to transfer several petitions to a single Court, which was approved by the Supreme Court on January 6, 2025, in the matter of Competition Commission Of India v. Cloudtail India Private Limited.
The central point of the case is that the giants of Indian e-commerce Amazon and Flipkart are alleged to be doing malpractices in competition and the complaint was raised to CCI by Vyapar Mahasangh of Delhi in 2019, under the Competition Act, 2002, they had noted that the alleged companies have given privileges to certain sellers as deep discounts, exclusive arrangements, favoured listings.
-In consideration of that, CCI initiated a probe in 2020, and the report noted that the alleged were engaged in malpractices by favouring selected sellers and making exclusive lunches online by tie-up with smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Vivo.
The Supreme Court Bench comprising of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan for the plea to transfer all petitions from several Courts to one court, either the top Court or to the High Court of Delhi as asked by the Attorney General R Venkataramani representing CCI in the matter, was denied.
On Monday, the Apex Court noted that all 24 plus 2 (2 more were filed before the HC could pertain to the matter) petitions are going to be transferred to the High Court of Karnataka for further hearings and said the Judge will give reasonable times to all pleading parties to implead as respondents.
The Court said, “If similar petitions are hereafter instituted in any other High Court, the same shall be also covered by this order”. If not done so, then proceeding with a similar matter can have conflicting rulings, causing confusion.
Case Name:- Competition Commission Of India v. Cloudtail India Private Limited.
Case Number:- T.P.(C) No. 003364 – 003387 / 2024
Bench:- Justices Abhay S. Oka, Ujjal Bhuyan