Flipkart files complaint against supplier MRPL

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Apr 30, 2018

The e-commerce giant Flipkart has filed a police complaint against Macrowagon Retail (MRPL) which supplied various fashion products to the platform and has accused the business of fraud and breach of trust among other offences.

One of Flipkart’s major suppliers, MRPL, has been accused by the business of cheating, forgery, fraud, and breach of trust. The complaint is also against the Flipkart employee who liaised with MRPL.

The complaint states that Flipkart had a contract with MRPL and the company Director to import and supply an array of items. These included Skechers brand sneakers which Flipkart sold on its platform to different sellers. At the end of 2017, Skechers had complained to Flipkart and four of its sellers that they were selling fake merchandise and this resulted in raids on a number of factories to recover fake goods.

Following this, Flipkart had a third party conduct a forensic audit and this revealed that MRPL and the Flipkart employee working with the business were importing low quality products at a cheap price and selling them at the normal price for genuine goods, the Economic Times reported. The audit also reported customs, tax, and excise fraud as Flipkart, thinking the products were genuine, paid these fees. The Flipkart employee has been accused of creating fake documents and bills.

A spokesperson for Flipkart said: “Flipkart has a zero-tolerance policy on all incidents of fraud or breach of trust and takes all violations very seriously. We have stringent checks and policies to weed out unscrupulous people or entities, besides initiating strict action as per applicable laws of the land.” However, a spokesperson for MRPL told the Economic Times that the accusations are “baseless” and so it will be up to the police to carry the matter further.