Supreme Court suggests transferring Amazon, Flipkart cases to Karnataka High Court on CCI's request

The Supreme Court on Monday indicated that it is inclined to transfer all cases regarding anti-competitive practices by e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart to the Karnataka High Court [Competition Commission of India Vs Cloudtail].

A Bench of Justices AS Oka and Manmohan also instructed the Karnataka High Court not to proceed with hearing Amazon's petitions against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) until January 6.

The Karnataka High Court was scheduled to hear the case on December 17.

The Supreme Court's observation came while hearing CCI's plea to transfer a batch of 24 writ petitions related to alleged anti-competitive practices by Amazon and Flipkart either to the top court or to a single High Court.

"Parties present today are notified. We allow the petitioner to add parties. The amended cause title shall be filed within two days. Notices are returnable on January 6. Meanwhile, the writ petitions in Karnataka HC shall not proceed. Prima facie, we believe all cases pending across various courts should be transferred to the Karnataka High Court," the Supreme Court stated in its order.

Initially, CCI requested that these petitions be transferred to the Delhi High Court to expedite adjudication and minimize the potential for conflicting rulings.

The 24 petitions, pending before the High Courts of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Karnataka, and Allahabad, among others, stem from information filed by the Delhi Vyapar Sangh. They allege that Amazon and Flipkart violated the Competition Act, 2002, through exclusive arrangements, deep discounts, and preferential listings in the sale and purchase of mobile phones.

During the hearing on December 13, the Supreme Court had suggested transferring the cases to the Karnataka High Court instead of Delhi and directed CCI to obtain instructions on this.

On being informed today, Attorney General R Venkataramani and Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, representing CCI, stated that the anti-trust regulator had no objection to the cases being transferred to the Karnataka High Court.

However, lawyers for Amazon and other respondents highlighted that some parties have not been impleaded as respondents, and two more petitions were filed in the High Court on the same issue, increasing the total to 26 writ petitions.

The Supreme Court noted that a transfer order could be issued only after hearing all parties and adjourned the matter to January 6, directing the petitioners to include all relevant parties as respondents.

The respondents were represented by Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Dr. S. Muralidhar, and Sajan Poovayya. The AG and ASG were briefed by advocates Arjun Krishnan and Anandh Venkataramani. Vyapar Sangh, on caveat, was represented by advocates Abir Roy, Vivek Pandey, and Aman Shankar from Sarvada Legal.