Amazon’s Jeff Bezos faces protests, antitrust probe in India
- Bezos’ trip comes amid a probe on whether Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are killing off local Indian sellers on their e-commerce platforms
- The Confederation of All India Traders, which says it represents 70 million small businesses, vowed ‘strong protests’ against Bezos in 300 cities
Amazon has said it will cooperate with the investigation and was “confident” it was operating legally.
But traders across India said they would stage protests during the visit to demand the government takes action against Amazon.
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The merchants accuse Amazon and Flipkart of flouting foreign investment rules and pouring billions of dollars into discounts that force traditional traders out of business.
Flipkart was Indian owned until bought by Walmart for US$16 billion in 2018 following a bidding war with Amazon.
The Confederation of All India Traders, which says it represents 70 million small businesses, vowed “strong protests” in 300 cities – including New Delhi, where Bezos was to speak on Wednesday at the Amazon business summit.
The competition commission said it will report in 60 days, but its inquiries normally take a lot longer.
After arriving on Tuesday, Bezos paid tribute to India’s independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, dressing in an Indian kurta to lay flowers at a memorial in Delhi.
He described Gandhi in a Twitter message as someone who “truly changed the world”.
Bezos will also visit India’s financial capital Mumbai, where he will reportedly attend a party with Bollywood celebrities on Thursday evening.
Since its launch in India in 2016, the company’s streaming platform Amazon Prime has partnered with the who’s who of Bollywood to produce entertainment content in several Indian languages.