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India: Amazon denies giving sellers preferential treatment

By  |  October 8, 2018
The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) on Friday, October 5, filed a petition with the Competition Commission of India alleging that Amazon favors merchants that it partly owns, such as Cloudtail and Appario, which Amazon denied on Monday.

“Amazon has an equal relationship with all the sellers on our marketplace,” Amazon India spokeswoman Bhumika Shah said in an email, adding that the company is “absolutely committed” to compliance with local laws.

AIOVA has asked the fair trade regulator to impose a “severe penalty” for unfair practices and to restrict what it says are “preferred sellers” from participating in Amazon India’s annual festival sales, which start this week.

The lobby group filed a similar petition against Walmart-owned Flipkart in May, alleging violation of competition rules through preferential treatment for select sellers. AIOVA also asked for restrictions to be placed on Flipkart’s festival sale this week.

Full Content: Reuters

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