India’s competition watchdog, the Competition Commission Of India, on Monday ordered a probe into alleged predatory deep discounts and exclusive launches offered by online sellers Amazon and Flipkart on mobile phones sold in the country.

The probe comes a day ahead of the scheduled India visit of Amazon global CEO Jeff Bezos.

The CCI ordered the probe based on a complaint filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh — an umbrella body of offline retailers based in the Indian capital city.

The CCI noted four alleged anti-competitive practices in the complaint—the exclusive launch of mobile phones, preferred sellers in these online platforms, deep discounting and preferential listing and promotion of private labels.

The CCI also added that in 2018, Flipkart launched 67 mobile phones exclusively on its portal, while Amazon launched 45 for its Indian customers. The competition regulator there was “prima-facie” inferred the appearance of an exclusive partnership between smartphone manufacturers and e-commerce platforms, creating an eco-system “that may lead to an appreciable adverse effect on competition”.

The CII also through the probe wants to assess if the funding of discounts by the online platforms is an element of the exclusive tie-ups.

CCI has directed its Director-General to probe if the conduct of Flipkart and Amazon led to a contravention of India’s Competition norms and submit a report within the next 60 days.

On its part, Flipkart maintained that it fully complies to India’s laws and that it is perusing the CCI probe order.

“The Flipkart Group is fully compliant with all applicable laws and FDI regulations. We take pride in democratising e-commerce in India and giving market access to lakhs of MSMEs, sellers, artisans, and small businesses, making quality and affordable goods available to consumers through our transparent and efficient marketplace while creating lakhs of jobs” said Rajneesh Kumar, SVP and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group.

Amazon India spokesperson said, "We welcome the opportunity to address allegations made about Amazon; we are confident in our compliance and will cooperate fully with CCI.”

On Saturday, Chairman of CCI Ashok Kumar Gupta told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview that an internal study on Indian online platforms by the regulator had found issues related to deep-discounting, search ranking, use of consumer data. “If other entities and business participants feel that still they may need competition law enforcement then cases can be filed. And, suo moto also CCI can take up such cases and go ahead with enforcement,”Gupta told your channel.

First Published:Jan 13, 2020 7:03 PM IST