CAIT’s Praveen Khandelwal Urges Govt To ‘Suspend’ Flipkart & Amazon’s Ops In India

Trade body Confederation of All India Traders’ (CAIT) secretary general emeritus Praveen Khandelwal has reportedly urged the Centre to “suspend” the operations of Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart in the country. 

This comes just a day after reports surfaced that the Competition Commission of India (CCI), had internally found Amazon India and Flipkart guilty of flouting antitrust directives as well as prioritising certain sellers and listings. 

Speaking to Reuters, Khandelwal, who is also a BJP member of Parliament (MP), said that he will soon hold discussions with union commerce minister Piyush Goyal seeking an immediate suspension of the two ecommerce platforms’ operations in India. 

“The practices of these companies are greatly damaging our manufacturing sector,” Khandelwal reportedly added. 

As per a separate Business Standard report, Khandelwal urged the union government to introduce stricter ecommerce regulations and policies to prevent future breaches of competition laws. 

Meanwhile, CAIT’s national president BC Bhartia reportedly alleged that foreign-funded ecommerce platforms were undermining India’s retail market for years via predatory pricing and anti-competitive practices. Bhartia also reportedly claimed that the trade body was open to pursuing legal action to ensure accountability. 

On similar lines, All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) in a post on X welcomed the CCI’s report. 

“We are confident that the law will take necessary actions to protect our traders from these damaging practices that favour select corporations. As we approach the important festival season, it is vital to support our local mobile retailers who have been adversely affected by deep discounting and preferential supplies…,” said AIMRA. 

The latest salvo from the CAIT secretary is expected to open a new can of worms for the ecommerce platforms as the two have been at odds with each other for years now. In the past too, Khandelwal has sought a ban on these two ecommerce platforms for alleged deep discounting tactics. 

CAIT claims to represent more than 8 Cr Indian shopkeepers and repeatedly urged the Centre to take action against these platforms saying that Flipkart and Amazon India hurt smaller retailers.

Notably, this comes close on the heels of union commerce minister Piyush Goyal slamming Amazon India over “predatory pricing policies” last month, adding that ecommerce major’s plans to invest billions of dollars in India were only to offset its losses. However, later, Goyal clarified that the Centre is not against online marketplaces but wants them to operate fairly.