India: Issued interim ruling by Karnataka High Court Single Bench to uphold investigation into Amazon and Flipkart for alleged self-preferencing

On 11 June 2021, the High Court of Karnataka Single Bench upheld the investigation by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) into e-commerce retailers Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly treating certain sellers in a preferential matter, listing and promoting their own labels preferentially and exclusively launching mobile phones. If proven, Flipkart and Amazon would be in violation of Sections 3(1) and 3(4) of the Indian Competition Act. Specifically, it is to be detrmined whether the exclusive arrangements and preferential listings and treatments of certain sellers have resulted in negatively affecting competition. The two companies are being investigated together, seeing as they both seem to apply the same conduct and the competition between the two platforms is not relevant in this investigation.