CAIT urges govt to act against e-pharma cos over anti-competitive practices

New Delhi: Training its guns on e-pharmacy companies, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Monday strongly raised the issue of malpractices being conducted in online pharmacy trade.

CAIT alleged that primarily Pharmeasy, Medlife, 1Mg, Netmeds (now owned by Reliance Group), Amazon (foreign company owned by Amazon) Flipkart (owned by foreign company Walmart) are conducting business practices in contravention of provisions of The Drug & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and misusing the e-commerce landscape by operating on rock bottom prices with 30 per cent-40 per cent discount and free shipping.

It's a case of capital dumping in these e-pharmacies by foreign behemoths which is proving extremely detrimental to the future of the lakhs of crores of small chemists across the country. The retail chemists are the last mile connectivity and emergency provisioning is ensured by brick-and-mortar retailers who in turn also provide livelihood to millions of retail pharmacies, their families and employees.

The CAIT has once again reiterated while its demand for issuance of a fresh press note in lieu of Press Note 2 of the FDI policy to make Indian e-commerce trade free from all glitches and a competitive level playing field for all stakeholders and formation of a Regulatory Authority to monitor and regulate e commerce business in India.

CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that mushrooming of e-pharmacy is causing huge hardships to the retail chemists and distributors in the wake of anti-competitive practices like capital dumping and deep discounting leading to predatory pricing. Brick and Mortar medicine retailers, including retail chemists and distributors are the first points of contact for needy patients across the country. E-pharmacies with their financial backing by large foreign players/funds have started disrupting brick and mortar retailers due to the unmatched and often unsustainable pricing.