Prepare, properly present all your complaints against big online retailers before CCI: Piyush Goyal to traders

NEW DELHI: Hours after the Supreme Court rejected the pleas of Amazon and Flipkart against a CCI probe, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday asked the traders' community to "prepare themselves" and present all their complaints against big online retailers before the regulator to get "justice".

The Commerce and Industry Minister also said that large companies, which were spending crores on lawyers to ensure that nothing happens on retailers' complaints, have failed.

The apex court has refused to entertain the pleas of Amazon and Flipkart, challenging an order permitting the CCI to carry out a preliminary investigation into the alleged violation of the competition law.

Goyal, who has been vocal in supporting domestic traders, assured full support to the trader community from the government and asked traders to bring violations in the laws to the notice of the government.

He urged the traders to prepare themselves and "whatever complaints you have, present all those in front of CCI so that justice can be done".

The Supreme Court has rejected the pleas of large e-commerce companies, which were running from "your complaints in CCI," he said while addressing traders' fraternity on the occasion of National traders' day.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to entertain pleas of Amazon and Flipkart, saying that challenging the enquiry is like wanting a notice before the registration of an FIR under the criminal law and asked the e-commerce giants to submit themselves to the CCI probe.

On January 13, 2020, fair trade regulator CCI ordered a probe against Flipkart and Amazon for alleged malpractices, including deep discounting and tie-ups with preferred sellers on their platforms, following which both the companies had moved the high court seeking quashing of the probe order.

According to Goyal, if businesses want to do e-commerce in India, they need to take domestic retailers along.

The government is working towards simplifying legal metrology and creating a single-window online system to stop harassment of traders, he said, and urged the traders to boost 'Swarojgar, Swadeshi and Sugam Vyapar'.