The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is learnt to have offered the option of closing a FEMA violation case against e-commerce major Flipkart if the Walmart group firm admits its mistake and pays a penalty, sources aware of the development said.
Looking beyond the lesser penalty regime, in its 10th year of existence, the CCI needs more branches, according to experts
Domestic traders body CAIT on Thursday claimed that e-commerce major Amazon's plan to acquire Prione Business Services - its joint venture firm with Catamaran - will be a violation of foreign direct investment policy. Amazon has said it will acquire Prione Business Services, subject to requisite regulatory approvals. In August, Amazon and NR Narayana Murthy's Catamaran had announced that they will not continue their joint venture Prione Business Services beyond May 2022.
In two months, as many as 25 complaints have been sent to Enforcement Directorate, Competition Commission of India, Reserve Bank of India and income tax department, beside various state agencies, to thwart the deal.
The government has allowed the Enforcement Directorate to share information about economic offenders with 15 more agencies, including SFIO, CCI and NIA, a move that will expedite nailing of law-breakers. The finance ministry notified changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on November 22. Through the notification, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which deals primarily with cases of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, would be able to share data with a total of 25 agencies, including the 10 specified earlier.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday said that the proposed additional stake buy in United Breweries (UB) by Dutch major Heineken does not raise any competition concerns, effectively clearing the deal. In its order, the CCI said, "It is submitted that the proposed transaction does not give rise to competition concerns regardless of delineation of the relevant market for the purpose of this filing." UB is the country's largest beer company, while Heineken is the world's second-largest brewer after Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev.
Amazon on Wednesday filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court seeking clarifications on the scope of Enforcement Directorate's (ED) investigations into alleged foreign exchange violations by the company, according to sources. Last month, Amazon had said it was in receipt of summons by the ED in connection with its deal with the Future Group. According to sources, Amazon in its filing said the ED is expanding the scope of its investigations by seeking privileged and confidential legal advice it received in ordinary course of business since it started marketplace operations and that such requests aren't related to the agency's probe into the Future-Amazon deal.
The interim report highlights key competition issues in the e-commerce space like deep discounting, the imposition of unfair terms and conditions, the growing dependence of brick and mortar establishments on online platforms, and opaqueness in search rankings.
The political heat in West Bengal has been giving the rising mercury levels serious competition since the high court order.
All GST anti-profiteering complaints would be dealt with by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) from December 1 as the extended tenure of National Anti-profiteering Authority ends this month, an official said on Tuesday. A notification in this regard is expected to be issued by the finance ministry later this month, the official added. The National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) was set up in November 2017 under Section 171A of Goods and Services Tax (GST) law to check unfair profiteering activities by registered suppliers.
How dominant are Chinese firms in India's sub-Rs 10,000 mobile device market? The question has become relevant as the government has been thinking of reserving this price segment for domestic players who have not been able to battle the Chinese onslaught. However, telecom firms and others are concerned that such a move could stymie the effort to build affordable 5G phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
Byju's is set to go the way of Housing.com and Zilingo. It is only a matter of time. Indeed, the coup attempted by investors will ensure that, says Debashis Basu.
Last November, a lawyer for Future Retail Limited (FRL) told Delhi high court that Amazon is interfering with its lawful business and thousands may lose their jobs and FRL may go bankrupt. Senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for FRL, likened Amazon to East India Company. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who represented Amazon, told the Future counsel to keep the "East India Company" rhetoric aside, as Amazon has invested $6.5 billion all over India and created 900,000 jobs. This drama played out in the case in which Amazon has challenged Future's $3.4-billion deal with Reliance, alleging the retailer's deal breached an agreement with the American e-commerce firm.
According to sources, the directorate has sent a letter to Flipkart on the basis of complaints received after the Big Billion Day sale on October 6.
'For all of us at Amazon, it is 'Bharat first'.' 'We are keeping the Indian customer at the centre of what we are doing.'
Future Retail's (FRL's) independent directors have written a second letter to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stating American e-commerce major Amazon never intended to invest in Future Coupons (FCPL) and the representations made by the US e-commerce player were completely opposite and contradictory to their own internal correspondences as submitted before courts. The directors also wrote to CCI that Amazon has obtained approval by making deliberate misrepresentations. By actively misleading the CCI and the regulator, it has to revoke the approval granted for Amazon's investment in FCPL.
Embattled retailer Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to avert insolvency proceedings over missing a loan repayment deadline, even as its independent directors rejected an Amazon-supported offer to sell the company businesses at less than a third of what Mukesh Ambani's Reliance is offering. India's second-largest retailer, which operates multi-brand retail chains such as Big Bazaar, Easyday and Heritage, failed to pay Rs 3,494.56 crore to lenders by the due date of December-end and sought a 30-day grace period to resolve the situation. Unable to find money, it moved the apex court seeking to restrain its lenders from declaring the company a defaulter, which can invite initiation of insolvency proceedings.
Ever since the deal was announced of Walmart spending over $16 bn for a 77 per cent stake in Flipkart, the road to the takeover of India's biggest online marketplace has been quite bumpy
US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to the independent directors of Future Retail Limited (FRL), including Gagan Singh, Ravindra Dhariwal and Jacob Mathew, and its audit committee, providing data and alleging that there have been significant financial irregularities to the prejudice of public shareholders, banks, creditors, and third-party suppliers. Amazon has said this warrants a thorough and independent examination of all relevant facts and related-party transactions, including of past financial years, by an independent agency. Separately, Amazon has written to Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi, seeking the withdrawal of the regulator's conditional approval granted to FRL related to the merger deal between the Future group and Reliance.
Uddhav Thackeray and his followers have the option to stop riding a tiger and commence work around a more meaningful and enduring political ideology. It is an option Eknath Shinde's side may not have, supported as they were by the BJP, to maintain continuity of the old Sena, argues Shyam G Menon.
CCI investigation into predatory pricing likely
The draft favoured up to 49 per cent foreign equity in inventory model in the case of 100 per cent made in India products sold through Indian management-controlled platforms with resident Indian founders/promoters.
With expectations of customers changing and demand for seamless, uninterrupted shopping increasing, tech companies are now using this fear of becoming irrelevant as a sales pitch to sell their products to traditional retailers.
The Supreme Court Tuesday set aside three Delhi high court orders including the refusal to grant a stay on the final arbitral award which had restrained Future Retail Ltd from going ahead with its Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail and ordered fresh adjudication. In a major relief to Future group, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana also set aside the high court's order of February 2 last year, by which it had directed Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to maintain status quo in relation to the merger deal. The March 18 order of the high court, upholding the EA's award and imposing a cost of Rs 20 lakh on it as well as its directors, has also been set aside.
'If Walmart is a physical retailer, why is it striking a deal with Flipkart for the online space?'
The Delhi high court on Thursday upheld the Singapore Emergency Arbitrator's (EA) order restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business, which was objected to by US-based e-commence giant Amazon.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the update 'does not impact the privacy of personal messages for anyone'.
The Delhi high court's division bench has stayed the single bench order favouring the emergency award against the Future-Reliance deal and imposing a Rs 20 lakh fine on Kishore Biyani & other respondents. including FRL and FCPL.
A direction by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, Justice B R Gavai, and Justice Surya Kant to the Karnataka high court asked the latter to expeditiously settle the matter of assets deposited before it by Mallya for liquidation, and thereby payment to creditors 'preferably not later than three months'. It will be interesting to see the view of the London high court, if the settlement of his dues to Indian creditors is imminent, reports Ashis Ray.
Vice President Dhankar's and Law Minister Rijuju's recent interventions have the danger of destabilising the Constitutional equilibrium, cautions N Sathiya Moorthy.
Real estate biggies expcet single window clearance for upcoming projects.
One of the urgent tasks ahead for the new government should be to improve public trust in the executive.
'We have often heard the mythical argument that patents block access to life-saving drugs, but only 5% of medicines from multinational companies are under patent protection in India.' 'Where these patented products are beyond the reach of Indian patients, the companies have programmes to facilitate access to their drugs, for free or for a fraction of the price,' points out Ranjana Smetacek, former director general, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India.
The finance ministry and several agencies under it such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which are investigating the affairs of Sahara India Parivar, are worried about its exposure to National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) products.
"One was 'AP' and the other was 'Fam'. 'AP' stands for Ahmed Patel and 'Fam' stands for family. Have you heard of Ahmed Patel? Which family is he close to?" Modi asked the crowd at a rally in Dehradun.
A glance back at some of the important ups and down Indian Inc faced in 2018.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while addressing the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on "Recapturing India's Growth Momentum" in Washington on Thursday, said that the leading think tank need not launch an initiative to explore how India will vote in 2014, declaring that the Indian polity will vote the Congress back into power.
The San Francisco-based giant has acquired a Delhi-based company.
'There exists a 'brotherhood' of sorts for a very long time and corrupt dealers and corrupt OMC officials are in it together,' Ashwani Attrish, founder, Empowering Petroleum Dealers Foundation, tells Sudhir Bisht, a veteran of the petroleum industry.
Why is the BJP playing 'competitive politics' where there is scope or room for none? The release of 5 Indian fishermen on death row in Sri Lanka was a victory for India's quiet diplomacy of long years in the matter -- and not for loud politics by parties in the country.
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