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Synopsis

Amid the filing of various petitions, the Supreme Court of India has recently transferred all petitions filed by Amazon and Flipkart, challenging the Indian Competition Commission's (ICC) probe into alleged anti-competitive practices by the e-commerce giants, to the Karnataka High Court.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, while transferring the pleas, said,".....Therefore, it will be appropriate if all the petitions which are the subject matter of this transfer petition are transferred for hearing to the High Court of Karnataka...."

The court made these observations while dealing with a plea filed by the ICC seeking the transfer of all petitions involving Amazon and Flipkart, either to the Supreme Court or to a single High Court.

During the hearing, Attorney General R.Venkataramani, appearing for the ICC submitted before the bench that various pleas concerning the ICC probe had been filed before different high courts.

Notably, the ICC had sought the transfer of cases pending before the High Courts of Allahabad, Madras, Telangana, Punjab & Haryana, Delhi, and Karnataka either to the Supreme Court or the Delhi High Court.

The CCI initiated the probe against Flipkart and Amazon following a complaint filed by Delhi Vyapar Sangh, a trade association. The complaint accused the e-commerce giants of violating competition laws by engaging in exclusive arrangements, deep discounting, and preferential listings for mobile phones on their platforms.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had expressed its inclination to transfer all petitions filed by Amazon and Flipkart, challenging the ICC probe into alleged anti-competitive practices to the Karnataka High Court.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Manmohan accordingly had issued a notice on a plea filed by the ICC seeking the transfer of all petitions involving Amazon and Flipkart, either to the Supreme Court or to Delhi High Court.

Case Title: Competition Commission of India v. Cloudtail