The Supreme Court on Monday said that all cases concerning the anti-competitive practices by e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart, pending before various High Courts, should be transferred to the Karnataka High Court.
The Apex Court further directed the Karnataka High Court not to hear Amazon’s petitions against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) till January 6.
The Karnataka High Court is slated to heard the case on December 17.
The Bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Manmohan expressed its prima facie view on a petition filed by CCI, seeking transfer of a batch of 24 writ petitions pertaining to alleged anti-competitive practices by Amazon and Flipkart either to the Apex Court, or to a single High Court.
The Bench recorded in it’s order that the amended cause title should be filed in two days and the notices issued should be returned by January 6.
The CCI moved the Apex Court seeking transfer of 24 writ petitions, pending before the High Courts of Delhi, Punjab & Haryana, Karnataka and Allahabad, among others, to a single High Court, preferably the Delhi High Court.
The petitioner contended that this would expedite the adjudication as well as minimise any scope of conflicting rulings on the issue.
On December 13, the top court of the country had said that it would transfer the petitions to the Karnataka High Court instead of the Delhi High Court and directed the CCI to obtain instructions on the same.
Appearing for CCI today, Attorney General R Venkataramani and Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman apprised the Bench that CCI had no objection to the cases being transferred to the Karnataka High Court.
The lawyers appearing for Amazon and other respondents, however, apprised the Apex Court that some of the parties have not been impleaded as respondents.
The Bench was further informed that two more petitions have been filed before the High Court pertaining to the same issue, taking the number of writ petitions to 26.
Noting that an order to transfer all the petitions to a single High Court could only be passed after hearing all parties, the top court of the country adjourned the matter to January 6.
It further permitted the petitioners to add all relevant parties in the case as respondents.
The matter pertained to the information given by the Delhi Vyapar Sangh alleging violations of the Competition Act, 2002 by Amazon and Flipkart relating to the sale and purchase of mobile phones.
It alleged that the e-commerce companies indulged in exclusive arrangements, deep discounts and preferential listings in violation of the competition law.