NEW DELHI: Traders' body CAIT today said it seeks Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu's intervention in the proposed USD 12-billion Flipkart-Walmart deal, saying the alliance will encourage malpractices and predatory pricing in e-commerce.In a letter to Prabhu, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said the sale of Flipkart's Singapore holding company should not be allowed till the time the government frames an e-commerce policy.
The traders' body argued that the government should make it mandatory that such deals can take place only when 75 per cent of the sellers on an e-platform give their assent since they would be the worst sufferers.
"In order to ensure free and fair e-commerce business in the country, we suggest that a policy for e-commerce should be finalised at an early date in consultation with all stakeholders including the trading community," CAIT said.
Moreover, it claimed that such a deal will encourage malpractices, loss funding and predatory pricing in e-commerce in the absence of any monitoring mechanism and create an uneven level playing field where offline and online traders will be unable to compete.