CAIT: large scale protests against Walmart-Flipkart deal on July 2

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 12, 2018

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) announced on June 12 that it plans to hold protests against Walmart’s Flipkart acquisition deal in 1,000 locations across India on July 2.

The two day CAIT National Governing Council meeting is currently ongoing Ahmedabad and, as part of this meeting, CAIT has announced its plans to hold protests across India on July 2. The protests will be to contest Walmart’s acquisition of a 77 percent stake in Flipkart, a deal that is expected to go through by the end of the year after being officially announced by Walmart and Flipkart in May.

CAIT hopes that these protests will convince the Union Government to reject the deal. "This time we shall be pursuing the matter with both ED [Enforcement Directorate] and Reserve Bank of India so that e-commerce companies including Flipkart and its new owner Walmart should not escape from the liability of mal-practices, predatory pricing and deep discounting," General Praveen Khandelwal, the CAIT Secretary, said in a statement.

Khandelwal explained that CAIT believes that Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart goes against Press Note 3 of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations which, released on march 29 2016, is a set of guidelines for foreign investment in India’s e-commerce market. CAIT also stated that Walmart’s discounting practices go against Indian law and have also previously raised concerns over the deal’s effect on Indian manufacturers as Walmart is US owned.