Amazon, Future Group dig in

The legal battle between Future Group and Amazon.com Inc. over the former’s ₹24,713 crore deal with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is snowballing, with the two litigants adopting the dual strategy of pursuing the case in Indian courts as well as at the Singapore arbitration court.

While Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail has filed a lawsuit against Amazon in the Delhi high court to stop it from interfering in the RIL-Future deal, the US retail giant has urged immediate intervention by regulators Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Competition Commission of India (CCI) in a bid to halt the deal.

The US e-commerce giant accuses Future Retail of breaching takeover norms, perpetuating fraud, misleading investors, disregarding the award of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and acting against the small shareholders of debt-laden Future Group in order to benefit group promoter Biyani.