Anguished over Amazon & Flipkart's reply, CAIT to re-approach Piyush Goyal

New Delhi, Oct 12 (KNN) Anguished over e-tailers like Amazon and Flipkart's reply over unethical business practices, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) will place the entire matter once again before the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

The traders' body also said that they will ask for independent audit of both Amazon and Flipkart's business modal over the charges raised by CAIT in a meeting held on Friday by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce.

''We placed various evidences of predatory pricing, deep discounting , controlling inventory by portals, exclusivity and total violation of FDI policy of the Government by both Amazon and Flipkart but both the portals denied all charges and said that they comply FDI policy in its letter & spirit . On deep discounting both portals strongly said that they are not offering discounts and it is the brands which offer discounts,'' Khandelwal said in a press release.

He further said that since both Amazon and Flipkart have passed the buck on Brands, the CAIT will soon write to all Brands and ask them to clarify their position on the claims of Amazon and Flipkart. If needed, the CAIT will not hesitate to approach Competition Commission of India or approach court of law to make brands clarify their position. Whoever, is giving deep discount must be flouting one or the other law or policy and CAIT will seek action against them.

''Meanwhile, the CAIT will soon organise a conference in Delhi and will invite all brands to spell out their stand. It’s an important issue as who is giving discount should be made clear and if brands are giving such huge discounts, the offline traders will boycott those brands and will not sell their product across Country,'' he added.

''The CAIT is committed to protect business of offline traders and if need be can launch a nationwide movement for action against these two portals. Due to their predatory pricing almost more than 30,000 mobile shops in the Country have closed and there is a loss of about 30 per cent business of offline market,'' Khandelwal concluded.

The meeting was chaired by Shailendra Singh, Additional Secretary, DPIIT and was also attended by other ministry officials. The CAIT was led by its Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal while Flipkart was led by its COO Rajneesh Kumar and Amazon by Gopal Pillai, Vice President.

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