Amazon moves HC against ED probe
NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday will hear a plea by Amazon India challenging Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s probe in connection to the company’s deal with Kishore Biyani led Future group for suspected violations of foreign exchange laws.
In its plea listed before Justice Rekha Palli, Amazon has said that ED is expanding the scope of its investigations by seeking privileged and confidential legal advice it received in ordinary course of business since it started marketplace operations. It said that such requests are not related to the agency’s probe into the $3.2 billion Future-Amazon deal.
The US giant has said that ED is seeking privileged and confidential legal advice it received in ordinary course of business since it started marketplace operations and that such requests aren’t related to the agency’s probe into the Future-Amazon deal.
It has also said that the agency is conducting “fishing” and “roving” investigations against them and subjecting them to proceedings without any jurisdiction and thereby causing unnecessary harassment to them. The plea has also said that several summons have been given to its employees, including its India head, for seeking information on the transactions which are completely unconnected with them.
Amazon and Future have been locked in a bitter legal tussle after the US e-commerce giant dragged Future group to arbitration at SIAC in October last year, arguing that the latter had violated their contract by entering into the deal with rival Reliance.
Amazon had approached the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) as well as in Indian courts. Last week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended its more than two-year-old approval for Amazon’s deal to acquire a stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd, and also imposed a ₹202 crore penalty on the e-commerce major for certain contraventions.
On October 21, the SIAC rejected the plea of FRL to lift the interim stay granted by its EA on October 25 last year, observing that “the award was correctly granted”.
The appeal by the company was filed at the international arbitration tribunal against an October 25, 2020 order of the Emergency Arbitrator which had barred FRL from taking any step to dispose of or encumber its assets or issuing any securities to secure any funding from a restricted party.