NCLAT upholds CCI order, asks Amazon to pay Rs 200 cr penalty in 45 days

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday rejected Amazon’s plea challenging the decision of fair trade regulator CCI to suspend the approval for the e-commerce major’s deal with Future Coupons.

A two-member bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Ashok Kumar Mishra upheld the findings of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). It directed Amazon to pay the penalty of Rs 200 crore imposed by the fair trade regulator within 45 days from Monday.

“This appellate tribunal is in complete agreement” with the CCI, the two-member bench said.

In December last year, CCI had suspended its approval (given in 2019) for Amazon’s deal to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL).

The regulator said that Amazon suppressed information while seeking clearances for the transaction back then and slapped a fine of Rs 202 crore on the company.

FCPL is a promoter of Future Retail Ltd (FRL).

Amazon had opposed FRL’s deal to sell assets to Reliance Retail as part of a Rs 24,713-crore deal, which has now been called off.

The e-commerce major opposed the deal based on its 2019 transaction, whereby it acquired a 49 per cent stake in FCPL.

NCLAT concluded its hearing in April this year over Amazon’s plea. All parties had filed revised notes of submissions along with relevant citations before the registry.

On Monday, apart from Amazon’s plea, the appellate tribunal had also reserved the order on two other petitions in the matter filed by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF).

FRL was part of the 19 group companies operating in retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing segments, which were supposed to be transferred to Reliance Retail as part of a Rs 24,713 crore deal announced in August 2020.

The deal was called off by the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd in April.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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