India targets a series of foreign "giants" for violating competition laws

Citing a report, Reuters reported that Samsung, Xiaomi and other smartphone makers violated competition laws by joining hands with Amazon and Flipkart to launch exclusive products on e-commerce platforms in India.

Reuters reported that Samsung, Xiaomi and other smartphone manufacturers have joined hands with Amazon and Flipkart to launch exclusive products on e-commerce platforms in India, violating competition laws. (Source: Getty)

An antitrust investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) found that Amazon and Flipkart violated competition laws by favoring some retailers at the expense of others.

The CCI's 1,027-page report on Amazon also said that the Indian branches of five companies including Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Realme and OnePlus were involved in exclusive phone launches and violated competition laws by colluding with Amazon and its affiliates.

In Flipkart's case, the 1,696-page CCI report said that the Indian units of Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo and Realme had engaged in similar practices.

Mr. GV Siva Prasad, Director-in-charge of CCI, emphasized that monopoly in business is unacceptable. This behavior is not only against free and fair competition but also against the interests of consumers.

Xiaomi, Amazon, Flipkart and CCI have not yet commented on the report.

Data from market research firm Counterpoint Research shows that South Korea's Samsung and China's Xiaomi are the two largest smartphone makers in India, holding nearly 36% of the market share, while China's Vivo has 19%.

Consulting firm Bain expects India's online retail market to cross $160 billion by 2028, compared with $57-60 billion in 2023.

The CCI's indictment will hit Amazon and Flipkart hard in a key growth market where the two businesses have faced criticism from small retailers for years for undercutting traditional retail businesses.

CCI also said both e-commerce platforms used their foreign investments to offer preferential prices for services such as warehousing and marketing to some retailers.

Indian retailers have repeatedly accused Amazon and Flipkart, as well as other smartphone makers, of launching phones exclusively online, criticizing stores for not having access to the latest models and forcing customers to search for them on shopping websites.

Indian research firm Datum Intelligence estimates that 50% of phone sales were online last year, up from 14.5% in 2013. Flipkart will account for 55% of online phone sales by 2023, while Amazon will account for 35%.

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