CAIT Hails Delhi High Court Order on Amazon Issue

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has welcomed the order of the Delhi High Court in which it held Amazon liable for violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and provisions of the FDI policy of the Government.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said, “This judgement vindicates the stand taken by the CAIT since a long time that Amazon is openly violating the FDI Policy of the Government and reinforces Amazon’s blatant conduct and an urgent need for the Enforcement Directorate and other statutory authorities to take corrective measures so as to prevent Amazon from abusing the laws of the land for its benefit.”

He said that the manipulative, coercive, arbitrary and dictatorial policies of Amazon to control & dominate the retail trade of India through e-commerce should come to an end now.

It has been held that Amazon acquired control of Future Retail by virtue of its arbitrary dominance in Future Coupon Limited and in the absence of any Government approval, it is contrary to FEMA & FDI rules, according to CAIT.

The CAIT in the recent past has submitted a detailed complaint along with evidence to the Commerce Minister, Finance Minister, Enforcement Directorate, SEBI and RBI for taking action against Amazon for its violatiing deal with the Future Group.

The CAIT in its complaint has repeatedly said that Amazon in a most clandestine manner but in violation of FEMA and the FDI policy acquired rights which were not merely protective but rather conferred controlling right in favour of Amazon which is not allowed both under FEMA and the FDI policy.

The findings by the High Court that Amazon has violated provisions of the FEMA rules vindicate CAIT’s consistent efforts to highlight the habitual violations of those rules by major e-commerce players like Amazon, said CAIT.

As sent by an IT traders association representative