The court said it saw no merit in the petitions of Facebook and WhatsApp to interdict the investigation directed by the Competition Commission of India.
Future Retail's independent directors had last week asked Amazon if it was willing to give a long-term loan to avoid default on repayment of Rs 3,500 crore loan due on January 29. Amazon replied to that saying it was willing to financially assist Future Retail through the Samara Capital deal but the retailer must shelve Rs 24,713 crore deal with the Reliance group.
The government on Monday signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Earlier this month, the government had accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt. Following that, on October 11 a Letter of Intenet (LoI) was issued to the Tata Group confirming the government's willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the airline.
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.
Debt-ridden mortgage firm DHFL's shares would be delisted from stock exchanges post acquisition by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, which has emerged as the successful bidder for the company. As part of resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), lenders led by Union Bank of India in January this year favoured the bid by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance to take over the beleaguered housing finance firm. According to sources, shares of DHFL would be delisted post acquisition as per the IBC guidelines and Sebi delisting norms.
Posting a 36-second long video on Instagram showing him flying a kite in Delhi, the world's richest man said, 'Any day is a good day when you get to fly a kite' and hash-tagged it #ThankYouIndia.
CAIT had last month also filed a petition in National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India's decision to approve the deal.
Amazon has filed a legal challenge at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) suspension of the US e-commerce giant's 2019 deal with Future Retail (FRL). Amazon has challenged the CCI order on at least five grounds, and the matter is likely to be listed this week, according to the sources. Parallelly, Amazon's Indian unit has approached the Supreme Court against a halt on an arbitration case against Future Retail's (FRL) asset sale to Reliance Industries (RIL).
This is the second time in less than six months that the fair trade watchdog has called for an investigation against the two entities after finding prima-facie evidence of violation of competition norms.
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.
PharmEasy has acquired Medlife for an undisclosed amount, the e-pharmacy unicorn said on Tuesday. The deal will make PharmEasy the largest player in the domestic online pharmacy sector, with the combined entity set to serve 2 million customers a month.
Some regulators are already unleashing their own algorithms to track and understand pricing software of e-commerce companies. While companies collude on pricing, governments are collaborating on curbing online malpractices. The legal liability of an algorithmic decision will be interpreted as legal liability of an entity of an individual. Anti-trust activities of algorithms will not go unchallenged in any economy.
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.
Independent directors of Future Retail Ltd are collating information and will expose the details of contradiction and misrepresentation made by Amazon before the Competition Commission of India (CCI), said FRL independent director Ravindra Dhariwal. Speaking to PTI, Dhariwal said the independent directors are "collating" all the pieces of information together, going "deeper into each and every representation" which Amazon had made before the CCI and showing how its "intent was totally contradictory." "We are going out to point exactly to CCI, this is what they have told you and this is what the internal documents are saying. "We are going to expose the details of contradiction and details of misrepresentation, which they have made," Dhariwal said adding "We are going to show the true face of Amazon to the whole world". In November 2019, Amazon had acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), a company that holds a stake in FRL.
Prosus-backed fintech firm PayU is set to acquire India's earliest payment gateway BillDesk in an all-cash transaction of $4.7 billion. This will be the largest acquisition in India's digital payments space. The deal will also give exit to investors General Atlantic, TA Associates, Temasek, Clearstone Ventures, and Visa. The proposed acquisition will help PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus which operates in more than 20 markets, become one of the leading online payment providers globally by total payment volume (TPV).
The Delhi high court on Friday declined Future Group's plea for stay on an arbitration tribunal order refusing to interfere with the Emergency Award (EA) which restrained it from going ahead with the Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail. Justice Suresh Kumar Kait sought response from US-based e-commerce giant Amazon which had challenged the merger before the Singapore arbitration tribunal under SIAC, and listed the appeals by Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) and Future Retail Ltd (FRL) for further hearing on January 4. Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for FRL, urged the court to pass an interim order clarifying that an earlier order passed by the Supreme Court - which stayed all proceedings in relation to the enforcement of the EA - would remain in force despite the subsequent order passed by the duly constituted arbitration tribunal.
Amazon on Thursday said it has received a show-cause notice from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) based on a complaint filed by Future Group, with which the e-commerce major is locked in a legal battle. The American company and Future Group - one of the biggest retail companies in the country - have been engaged in a bitter tussle after the latter entered into a Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Industries for its retail, logistics and warehousing assets. "We are in receipt of a show-cause notice from the CCI based on the complaint filed by Future as a part of an ongoing dispute.
Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd on Thursday accused e-commerce giant Amazon of adopting a media strategy of "having every development reported and converted into a line of communication with stock exchanges" regarding the Amazon-Future Coupons' arbitration proceedings in Singapore. The Court of Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) had turned down a plea of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to be excluded from being a party to arbitration. In a regulatory filing disclosing the development, FRL said,"...this disclosure is being made out of abundant caution to avoid any speculation given Amazon's media strategy of having every development reported and converted into a line of communication with stock exchanges."
The order follows a complaint filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh which accused the e-commerce firms of anti-competitive practices like preferential listing, exclusive tie-ups and private labels.
The probe follows a complaint by Sharavan Yadav, Amitsinh Tanwar and Lavmeet Katariya -- international volleyball players who have represented India in numerous tournaments, according to an order by the Competition Commission of India.
With the increased death rate in the ongoing second wave of Covid-19, domestic cement companies are in no better condition than they were in the April-June quarter of FY21 when the country faced nationwide lockdown. "This wave has had high death rate which has impacted the business. "We are in no better situation than last (year) April. "Deaths of drivers, dealers, contractors and also employees have hit the industry really very hard since April (FY22)," M Ravinder Reddy, director of Bharathi Cements said.
The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday approved Piramal Group's resolution plan for the beleaguered Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), which has been reeling from the insolvency process since 2019. The plan put forward by Piramal Group, which has offered to pay Rs 37,250 crore, has been approved by the committee of creditors (CoC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
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 Competition Commission of India will launch an investigation of Ericsson in regard to a patent dispute with Indian firm Micromax, Ericsson said.
E-commerce giant Amazon and Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's Catamaran Ventures have "mutually decided" to not continue their joint venture (JV) beyond the end of its current term. The JV, Prione Business Services, which has been running successfully for the past seven years, was coming up for renewal on May 19, 2022. The JV enabled over 300,000 sellers and entrepreneurs to go online. It also enabled 4 million merchants with digital payment capabilities, providing these small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and merchants access to millions of customers across the country.
CCI had initiated investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices by Google.
The CII also hailed the exemption from seeking prior or post acquisition permission from CCI when an entity already holding 25 per cent or more stake in a company acquires up to 5 per cent additional stake in a financial year if its total stake does not cross 50 per cent.
Are the big five using their dominance to shut out rivals? That is the key question, says Prosenjit Datta.
"Some people think I said something negative against Amazon. If you look at the context of my statement, I said investment should come within the law and regulations. This process is followed across the world," the minister told reporters in Ahmedabad when asked to comment on his statement.
Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday ordered a detailed probe into popular messaging platform WhatsApp's updated privacy policy and terms of service after finding that the 'exploitative and exclusionary conduct' in the garb of the policy update prima facie violated competition norms.
Fair trade regulator Competition Commission said held that the Board of Control for Cricket in India indulged in anti-competitive practices and slapped a penalty of Rs 52.24 crore on it.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is "very unhappy" with Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India's decision to impose a hefty penalty of Rs 52.24 crore for indulging in anti-competitive practices and is planning to seek legal recourse in this regard.
The partnership will also see the two parties cooperate on technology initiatives, including development of affordable smartphones.
L&T has acquired Cafe Coffee Day-owner V G Siddhartha's 20.32 per cent stake in Mindtree and has also placed an order with brokers to pick up another 15 per cent shares from the open market.
JSW had moved competition watchdog alleging Asian Paints threatened various dealers from dealing with the company.
WhatsApp and Facebook had challenged the CCI's March 24 order directing a probe into the new privacy policy.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the update 'does not impact the privacy of personal messages for anyone'.
Among all the geographies where Amazon is fighting regulators, India is the only place where its lines are also tangled in a major corporate battle, this one with India's largest company by market capitalisation over the acquisition of Mumbai-based Future Group's retail chain, the country's second largest. No other corporate entity in any country offers a challenge to Amazon's hegemony in a way Reliance Industries does - and the final hearing of an arbitration case filed at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre between the two may decide at least some of these issues. This legal battle between one of the world's most powerful corporations and one of India's most powerful conglomerates could be complicated by a host of other developments.
LVB had faced some serious flak in terms of bad loans, earnings and credit rating downgrades, since 2016.
"The notification will be finalised in the first week of May and would be implemented from June 1, 2011," Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs D K Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI event in New Delhi.