Amazon has dragged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to the NCLAT for temporarily suspending its Rs 1,413 crore deal with Future Coupons Private Limited, which was signed in 2019. According to sources, Amazon has challenged the CCI order on at least five grounds, and the matter is likely to be listed this week.
CCI’s order
In mid-December, the antitrust body put the purchase of 49 per cent stake in the Future group entity in abeyance and ordered a penalty of Rs 202 crore on Amazon for allegedly not being upfront about the actual scope and purpose of the deal.
The 2019 deal is important for Amazon if it wants to continue blocking the deal between Future group and Reliance Industries.
Under this agreement with Future Coupons, Amazon had barred Future group, especially Future Retail, from getting into any equity sale deal with Reliance. Since the Future-Reliance deal was announced in 2020, Amazon has been using the 2019 agreement to block the deal. The American company has also won an arbitral award on the basis of this agreement.
Arbitration proceedings
Armed with CCI’s order nullifying Amazon’s investments in Future Coupons, the Kishore Biyani-led Future group had filed a new appeal with Delhi High Court to quash the ongoing arbitration proceedings against the Future-Reliance deal.In its prayer to the Delhi High Court, Future Retail has urged the court to issue an order that the continuation of the arbitration proceedings in the Singapore arbitration tribunal is contrary to law. A copy of the petition was reviewed by BusinessLine.
Earlier last week, the divisional bench of the Delhi HC put the arbitration proceedings on hold.
Future Retail further said that Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) didn’t have a jurisdiction to hold an arbitration in the said matter further to the CCI order.