CCI Orders Probe Against Amazon, Flipkart Over Deep Discounting, Preferential Listing For Mobile Phones

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has launched an investigation to find out if the exclusive arrangements, deep discounting and preferential listing by e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart for mobile phones are causing an adverse effect on competition.

The CCI on Monday (13 January) passed directions for investigation under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002. The order was passed by Ashok Kumar Gupta, chairman, Sangeeta Verma and Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi, both members.

In a 11 page order, the CCI observed that the exclusive arrangements between smartphone/mobile phone brands and e-commerce platform/select sellers selling exclusively on either of the platforms, coupled with the allegation of linkages between these preferred sellers and e-commerce companies merits an investigation.

The CCI noted that though these platforms are used for selling various categories of products, for some categories the online channel constitutes a predominant channel of distribution. Smartphones is one such category of product. The Informant has claimed that Amazon and Flipkart had 36 per cent and 53 per cent market share, respectively, in the market for smartphones sold on online marketplaces in India in the first quarter of the year 2019.

On careful perusal of allegations levelled by the Informant and the documents provided, the Commission noted that there are four alleged practices on the marketplaces, namely, exclusive launch of mobile phones, preferred sellers on the marketplaces, deep discounting and preferential listing/promotion of private labels.

The first issue under examination is that of the exclusive launch of mobile phones on the two major e-commerce platforms. The Informant has provided a list of phones which were exclusively launched on the platforms. The Informant has provided the following evidence in the form of text messages to indicate that due to partnership between mobile manufacturer (Vivo Z1x and Vivo U10 models) and platforms (Flipkart and Amazon), offline retailers are forced to purchase smartphones either from manufacturers' e-stores or from the platforms e-portals.

The Commission has also noted several reports in the media as well as advertisements by e-commerce portals regarding exclusive launches. Mobile manufacturing companies like One Plus, OPPO, and Samsung have exclusively launched several of their models on Amazon. Similarly, Vivo, Realme, Xiomi etc., have exclusively launched several of their models on Flipkart. In 2018, Flipkart launched 67 mobile phones and Amazon launched 45 mobile phones exclusively on its platform. 2 Thus, it appears that these mobile manufacturers partner with the e-commerce platforms and their brands are sold by the platforms' exclusive sellers.

"It needs to be investigated whether the alleged exclusive arrangements, deep-discounting and preferential listing by the opposite parties (Ops) are being used as an exclusionary tactic to foreclose competition and are resulting in an appreciable adverse effect on competition contravening the provisions of Section 3 (1) read with Section 3(4) of the Act," the order said.

"In view of the foregoing, the Commission is of the opinion that there exists a prima facie case which requires an investigation by the Director General (‘DG'), to determine whether the conduct of the OPs have resulted in contravention of the provisions of Section 3(1) of the Act read with Section 3(4) thereof, as detailed in this order," it added.

Accordingly, the Commission directs the DG to cause an investigation to be made into the matter under the provisions of Section 26(1) of the Act. The Commission also directs the DG to complete the investigation and submit the investigation report within a period of 60 days from the receipt of this order.

The case was filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh as the informant versus Flipkart Internet, owned by Walmart and Amazon Sellers, as opposite parties.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)