New Delhi: Small traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said on Tuesday that it has filed an appeal in National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the decision of Competition Commission of India (CCI) to approve Walmart-Flipkart deal.
Around two weeks back, Walmart had said that it has completed its $16 billion acquisition of a majority stake in India’s largest e-commerce company Flipkart.
In its appeal, the CAIT has asked for reversing the CCI order “as no opp-ortunity of hearing was given by CCI to CAIT.”
CCI on August 8 appr-oved the proposed acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart.
In its appeal, CAIT has maintained that it had filed a detailed objection against this proposed combination before the CCI on several grounds.
“It was alleged that the proposed combination would lead to a huge degree of vertical integration in the market since Walmart is a global retail giant with its own range of multi-brand products,” said CAIT.
It said that where the B2B market is concerned, there is a high likelihood of Flipkart and Walmart would affect other wholesalers on the platform, eliminating them in the long run by using several methods such as creation of algorithms perpetuating a search bias in favour of Walmart, and the creation of preferred sellers who would be receiving commissions.
