The Supreme Court on Friday refused to transfer 24 petitions related to alleged anti-competitive practices by Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart ecommerce platforms to itself or the Delhi High Court, but asked Attorney General R Venkatramani to take instructions by Monday from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for transferring all cases to the Karnataka High Court’s single judge bench.
A bench comprising Justices Abhay Oka and Pankaj Mithal said that the anti-trust body could not be given special treatment by directing the petitions to be heard directly by the division bench of the Karnataka HC instead of first having the benefit of the single judge bench’s decision.
“Only because some litigant is to be given special treatment, bypass the rules, we can’t place it directly before the division bench,” Justice Oka said, when Venkatramani asked the 24 petitions to be transferred directly to the division bench of the Karnataka HC.
“We will be accepting very dangerous argument that because in one HC as per rules matter is heard by single judge, only because in other HC it is heard by division bench it should then come to that HC,” Justice Oka observed, while issuing notice to various respondents including Samsung, Cloudtail, Vivo, etc.
Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi objected to the suggestion of directly approaching the Supreme Court or the Delhi HC or the division bench of the Karnataka HC as that would bypass an intra-court appeal in the Karnataka HC. Singhvi also accused the CCI of engaging in “forum shopping.”
The CCI told the SC that the petitions pending across various the High Courts of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Karnataka and Allahabad involve public interest.
“The underlying subject matter of inquiry before the petitioner i.e. e-commerce services offered by two of the major platforms, is of great general importance since if any anticompetitive activity is allowed to continue on these platforms, it harms and affects lakhs if not crores of ordinary people each passing day as these are the ultimate consumers on these platforms,” the appeal stated.
“It is important to note that even though the investigation was to be commenced in 2020, it was substantially delayed, in part due to the stay granted in favour of Amazon and Flipkart in the first round of litigation. Four years have passed and a final order is yet to be passed in the present case,” the CCI said in its transfer plea.
In 2020, the CCI found prima facie merit in Delhi Vyapar Sangh’s allegations of violations of Competition Act, 2002 by Amazon and Flipkart relating to sale and purchase of mobile phones submission. It alleged that the e-commerce companies indulged in exclusive arrangements, deep discounts and preferential listings in violation of competition law.
The CCI ordered an investigation by the Director General and this was challenged by Amazon and Flipkart. In September, the Karnataka High Court stayed further proceedings against Amazon, prompting all other HCs to pass similar orders.
