CCI investigation: Amazon moves HC for stay on probe on business practices

Amazon on Monday moved the Karnataka High Court seeking a stay on the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) order last month asking its director-general to investigate allegations that the e-commerce giant’s business practices entail ‘deep discounting, exclusive arrangements and preferential listing of sellers’. In its petition, which was reviewed by FE, Amazon said: “…the present impugned order has been passed without prima facie application of mind and will cause serious prejudice to the petitioner. Its findings are perverse, arbitrary, untenable in law”. It said an interim stay on the proceedings directed by CCI should be granted as “the balance of convenience for the stay lies in favour of the petitioner as a bona fide company”. The CCI investigation would also cause “irreparable loss and injury” to the company and its reputation.