Supreme Court moots transfer of Amazon, Flipkart cases to Karnataka High Court on CCI's plea

The Supreme Court on Monday observed that it was prima facie of the view that all cases concerning anti-competitive practices by e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart which are pending before various High Courts, should be transferred to the Karnataka High Court [Competition Commission of India Vs Cloudtail]..A Bench of Justices AS Oka and Manmohan also directed Karnataka High Court not to hear Amazon's petitions against Competition Commission of India (CCI) till January 6. The Karnataka High Court is slated to heard the case on December 17The Supreme Court was hearing CCI's plea to to transfer a batch of 24 writ petitions pertaining to alleged anti-competitive practices Amazon and Flipkart either to the top court or to a single High Court."Parties which are represented today take notice. We permit petitioner to add parties. Amended cause title shall be field in two days. Notices are made returnable on January 6. In the meanwhile, the writ petitions which are heard by Karnataka HC shall not proceed. Prima facie we are of the view that all cases pending across should be transferred to Karnataka High Court," the apex court said in its order today. .The CCI moved the Court seeking transfer of these petitions preferably to the Delhi High Court, in order to expedite the adjudication as well as to minimise any scope of conflicting rulings on this issue. The 24 petitions are pending before High Courts of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Karnataka and Allahabad, among others. They arise out of information filed by Delhi Vyapar Sangh alleging violations of Competition Act, 2002 by Amazon and Flipkart relating to sale and purchase of mobile phones. It is alleged that the e-commerce companies indulged in exclusive arrangements, deep discounts and preferential listings in violation of competition law.During the hearing of the CCI's transfer plea on December 13, the Supreme Court had opined that it would transfer the same to Karnataka High Court instead of Delhi and had directed CCI to obtain instructions on the same.When the matter was heard today, Attorney General R Venkataramani and Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, who appeared for CCI, informed the Court that the anti-trust regulator has no objection to the cases being transferred to the Karnataka High Court. .The Court was, however, informed by the lawyers for Amazon and other respondents that some of the parties have not been impleaded as respondents. Further, it was pointed out that two more petitions have been filed before the High Court pertaining to the same issue, taking the number of writ petitions to 26. The Supreme Court opined that an order transferring the petitions can be passed only after hearing all parties. It thus adjourned the matter to January 6. It also asked the petitioners to add 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 the ASG were briefed by advocates Arjun Krishnan and Anandh Venkataramani.Vyapar Sangh, which was on caveat, was represented by advocates Abir Roy, Vivek Pandey and Aman Shankar from Sarvada Legal.