Amazon-Future Deal

In News

• Recently, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) froze its approval given in November 2019 to Amazon’s investment in a Future Group unit.

About

• The grounds of freezing approval was that the U.S. e-commerce company had suppressed the scope and full details of its investment while seeking regulatory approval.
• The antitrust regulator also imposed a penalty of ?200 crore on Amazon for failing to notify the details of its ‘combination’, as required in law. 
• It also imposed a separate penalty of ?2 crore for suppressing the actual scope and purpose of the combination, a term used in competition law for acquisition, merger or amalgamation of two or more enterprises.

Image Courtesy: TH 

Approval

• The Commission had on November 28, 2019, granted approval for Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings’ proposal to acquire 49% in Future Coupons Private Ltd.
• The Commission would examine the Amazon-Future deal afresh, “given that the combination is between players who are known in the online marketplace and offline retailing and they have contemplated strategic alignment between their businesses.
• Amazon is given 60 days to pay the monetary penalty. It has the same period to notify the combination afresh with “true, correct and complete information.

Source: TH