CAIT urges Enforcement Directorate to take strict action against Amazon

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Dec 7, 2020

The Confederation of All India Traders has contacted the Enforcement Directorate and urged it to take strict action against Amazon India as it continues its campaign against the U.S. e-commerce giant.

In a letter to the ED, CAIT stated that it has sufficient evidence to prove that Amazon India has violated numerous Indian regulations including regulations on foreign direct investments since 2012, the Press Trust of India reported. CAIT urged the ED to request regulatory documents from Amazon India to investigate its business practices. 
 
“Taking into account the sentiments of Indian retailers and not to forget the amount of damage caused by the foreign e-commerce giants immediate and strict action is required and CAIT demands the ED to do the needful,” CAIT wrote, the Press Trust of India reported. 

“In our communication to ED we have highlighted how Amazon has invested in More Retail Limited, a MBRT Company and has put up a 'Front' namely 'Samara AIF', not only this, how the AIF structure which has been allowed by SEBI for the purpose of pooling of money of investors for financial investment and returns has been misused to control MBRT companies which could not have been otherwise done by Amazon," said CAIT chairman Praveen Khandelwal in a statement.
 
Amazon has not yet made a public statement on the matter. CAIT’s move comes after the traders’ body announced its support for the global ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign last week.

CAIT as contacted numerous government bodies to demand investigations into Amazon India, alleging that the business has greatly harmed Indian traders and monopolised the online market.