New India e-commerce rules may hit Amazon
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI — India will ban e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com and Walmartowned Flipkart Group from selling products from companies in which they have an equity interest.
In a statement, the government also said that the companies will be prevented from entering into exclusive agreements with sellers. The new rules will be applicable from February 1.
“An entity having equity participation by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies, or having control on its inventory by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies, will not be permitted to sell its products on the platform run by such marketplace entity,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.
E-commerce companies can make bulk purchases through their wholesale units or other group companies that in turn sell the products to select sellers, such as their affiliates or other firms with which they have agreements.
Those sellers can then sell the products to other companies or direct to consumers, often at attractively low prices.
The new regulations follow complaints from Indian retailers and traders, who say the giant ecommerce companies are using their control over inventory from their affiliates, and through exclusive sales agreements, to create an unfair marketplace that allows them to sell some products at very low prices.
The All India Online Vendors Association in October filed a petition with the anti-trust body Competition Commission of India alleging that Amazon favours merchants that it partly owns, such as Cloudtail and Appario.
The lobby group filed a similar petition against Flipkart in May, alleging violation of competition rules through preferential treatment for select sellers.
The notification also said that the cash back that customers get as an incentive while online shopping should not be based on whether the product was purchased from an affiliate of the platform or not. —