- Monday, May 06, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has sharpened the India’s establishment’s attack on American e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart, accusing them of breaching local laws by indulging in detrimental pricing practices.
Speaking at a virtual event organised by the Stanford India Policy and Economics Club on Saturday (26), Goyal said the companies were using their scale and access to big pools of low-cost capital to indulge in pricing practices that are detrimental to mom-and-pop stores.
“A number of these large e-commerce companies have come into India and very blatantly flouted the laws of the land in more ways than one,” he said at the event, Reuters reported.
“I’ve had several engagements with these large companies, particularly the American ones, and I can see a little bit of arrogance,” Goyal, who holds other important portfolios like railways, consumer affairs and food and public distribution, said.
Goyal’s remarks came when India’s small traders have slammed the US firms
Although Goyal did not directly name either Amazon or Walmart-owned Flipkart, the two dominant e-commerce players in India, his remarks came at a time when the country’s small traders and retailers have been accusing the big American firms of bypassing India’s consumer protection and competition laws.
Amazon and Flipkart have denied the charges brought against them by the traders.
The minister also slammed the companies for engaging in “forum shopping” in courts and failing to comply with an investigation started by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Both the e-commerce firms have appealed against the CCI’s bid to restart a probe into their business practices, after a judge dismissed their original pleas this month.
“To my mind, if they have nothing to hide, if they are doing honest business practices, why don’t they respond to the CCI?” Goyal asked.
Goyal’s scathing criticism came days after India unveiled a new set of regulations pertaining to e-commerce that could hurt both Amazon and Flipkart’s ambitions in India and forced them to reassess certain business structures.
