In a relief to Amazon, the Supreme Court has extended interim relief to the e-commerce giant and ordered that no recovery proceedings ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) shall be initiated until the next date of hearing i.e. September 20.
The top court’s direction comes on Amazon’s plea challenging the CCI's 2021 order that imposed a penalty of Rs 202 crore on the e-commerce giant for not disclosing its interest in Future Retail while investing in Future Coupons.
The order directed Amazon to pay the penalty amount by mid-February 2022. The penalties were imposed in two parts in accordance with separate sections of the law. Rs 200 crore and Rs 2 crore were thus imposed on Amazon.
Amazon
filed the petition with the Supreme Court after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) backed the antitrust body's decision to defer its approval of Amazon's deal with the Future Group.
Earlier in May this year, the Supreme Court stayed the CCI order suspending approval for the e-commerce giant's 2019 deal investment in Future group and also the recovery of the penalty.
In December 2021, CCI suspended
Amazon's 49 percent share acquisition clearance in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), the promoter of the Future Group.
Amazon was fined Rs 200 crore by the anti-trust tribunal for failing to disclose relevant and crucial information on its 2019 investment arrangement with FCPL.
The company, however, claimed that it made all required disclosures and committed no violation. The e-commerce giant had challenged the NCLAT verdict in the country's top court.
Amazon had opposed Future Retail's deal to sell assets to Reliance Retail based on its 2019 acquisition of FCPL stake. The Rs 24,713-crore Future Retail and Reliance Retail deal was eventually called off in April.
The Future Group and Amazon have been at loggerheads in courts since October 2020. It started when Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator ordered FRL which restrained it from going ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail.
