India's online sellers to appeal against competition commission's Flipkart ruling

[January 12, 2019]   MUMBAI (Reuters) - A group representing online sellers in India will appeal against the Competition Commision of India's (CCI's) ruling in favour of Walmart-owned Flipkart, the group's lawyer Chanakya Basa said in a release on Saturday.

All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA), which represents more than 3,500 online sellers, had complained that Flipkart was using its dominant position to favour select sellers. The CCI had rejected this argument in November.

The CCI had said Flipkart as well as Amazon did not break regulations through their selection of merchants and brands. [nL4N1XI3KJ]

The AIOVA will appeal to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Monday against the CCI decision, Basa told Reuters.

"We firmly believe we have filed adequate information to prove the existence of a prima-facie case which the hon'ble Commission has failed to take into account. Hence, we are filing this appeal," Basa said in a statement.

The logo of Flipkart is seen on the company's office in Bengaluru, India, May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa

The AIOVA has also brought a similar case against Amazon, alleging it favours merchants that it partly owns, such as Cloudtail and Appario.

India has a burgeoning e-commerce market, with almost 500 million Indians using the internet in 2018. The market is tipped to grow to $200 billion in a decade, according to Morgan Stanley. [nL3N1RZ068]

(Reporting by Euan Rocha and Suvashree Dey Choudhury; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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