Future moves CCI to stop Amazon deal

The independent directors of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) have fired a major broadside in their battle with Amazon by writing to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) seeking a revocation of the approval that it granted in November 2019 that enabled Amazon to pick up a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL).

FCPL, which is classified as a promoter entity, holds close to 9.82 per cent stake in Future Retail, thereby giving the US retail giant an indirect stake of over 3.50 per cent in the latter.

The indirect stake in FRL forms the basis on which Amazon has tried to scuttle FRL’s bid to sell its retail business to the Reliance group under a Rs 24,713-crore deal struck in August 2020 — exactly a year after the FCPL-Amazon transaction.