Six years after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) ordered a probe into alleged abuse of dominance by Flipkart, the Supreme Court has now reportedly set aside that ruling and sent the matter back to the appellate tribunal for a fresh review. As per a report by Bar and Bench, the SC bench, which comprised of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, ruled that the NCLAT must independently decide whether there is enough basis to order an investigation, without relying on material that may not be legally relevant under the Competition Act. Further, it noted that the earlier NCLAT ruling appeared to rely on observations made during income tax proceedings against Flipkart India. Those findings were later overturned by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). The case dates back to a 2018 complaint filed by the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA), which represents over 2,000 online sellers. The association had accused Flipkart of abusing its position by favouring large sellers and enabling deep discounting that hurt smaller vendors. While the CCI had earlier closed the complaint, holding that neither Flipkart nor Amazon was dominant in India’s online marketplace, the NCLAT overturned that finding in… Read MoreInc42 Media
