New Delhi: The Confederation of
All India Traders (
) has said it will file an
appeal
against Karnataka High Court's stay
order
on Competition Commission of India's (CCI) investigation
against
Amazon and
Flipkart.
In a statement the traders' body said that the court has stayed the
order for investigation passed by the CCI
on the ground that the ED has already initiated investigation into
Flipkart and
Amazon's activities that are alleged
to be in contravention of the FDI policy and so,
CAIT would now urge the government and the ED
to fastrack the
probe.
"Both
CAIT and Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh has decided
to file an
appeal
against the
order of the High Court very soon and both are consulting their respective lawyers. Meanwhile, the
CAIT will push with the
Union government
to speed up the ED investigation. In this context a
CAIT delegation will soon meet Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman," it said.
CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal termed the interim stay as "unfortunate and unexpected".
Khandelwal told IANS that the
CAIT is having a discussion with its lawyers over the future legal course.
"However, the court did acknowledge that the Enforcement Directorate should continue it's
probe
against these companies for FDI Violations. The
CAIT will now push the government
to expedite the ED
probe
to expose the malpractices of these companies and will also file an
appeal very soon in the matter," it added.
As the High Court
on Friday directed a stay
on the
probe, it has also asked all the respondents in the matter including CCI, Confederation of All India Traders (
CAIT), Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh and
Flipkart
to file their responses within eight weeks.
Amazon had
on Monday filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking stay
on the CCI
probe
order into its alleged violations of the competition laws. The anti-trust body had in January had ordered an enquiry into the operations of both
Amazon and
Flipkart
on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-ups with preferred sellers.
In its plea,
Amazon had sought "quashing and setting aside" of the CCI's
probe
order dated January 13, 2020, claiming that the fair competition watchdog passed orders
against the company without applying mind and caused serious loss
to its reputation.
In its
order, the CCI had said that it needs
to be investigated whether the alleged exclusive arrangements, deep discounting and preferential listing by
Amazon and
Flipkart are being used as an exclusionary tactic
to foreclose competition.