New Delhi, Aug 31 (KNN) Going against Flipkart-Walmart deal, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has filed a writ petition in Delhi High court praying that a direction be issued to Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate the activities of Flipkart.

The move comes after the ED took no steps with respect to the complaint filed by CAIT stating that the operations of Flipkart are not in consonance with the FDI policy.

“CAIT has also relied on the recent observations made by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that there must be legal and policy intervention to ensure that the activities of e-commerce players are within the ambit of FDI policy,” said traders association.

CAIT alleged that the Flipkart in the guise of operating under a marketplace model is also actively engaged in the inventory-based model of e-commerce.

“Their own admission before a tax authority shows that Flipkart is engaging in buying of goods which are ultimately sold on their platform. Flipkart tried to circumvent the law by routing the sales via their preferred sellers, who are their affiliates. It is a clear case of what they cannot do directly, they are doing it indirectly and this goes against the teeth of any law, including FDI policy and as such, Flipkart should liable as such,” CAIT has alleged.

Besides, CAIT alleged that Flipkart has consistently acted in violation of 25% norms condition by ensuring that close to 80% of the sales on its platform has taken place through its preferred sellers.

This fact has also been acknowledged by the CCI, Praveen Khandelwal, CAIT, President pointed.

He said that e-commerce entities providing marketplace will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods or services and shall maintain level playing field.

Flipkart has actively flouted this norm and engaged in Big Billion Day Sales, Diwali Sales etc., wherein it has directly influenced the sales prices of goods. This fact has also been acknowledged by CCI as well as tax authority, Khandelwal pointed.

Earlier in May, CAIT had filed an anti-trust petition with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) objecting the deal by alleging that Flipkart is engaged in “predatory pricing, deep discounts, and loss funding.”

Also, in the month of July CAIT had protested against the Walmart-Flipkart deal with the support of as many as 10 lakh traders.