Amazon slammed by Indian commerce minister for ignoring Indian laws

Since India announced the draft of the new e-commerce rules last week, a storm has been set off in the Indian e-commerce industry . Recently, some remarks made by the Indian Minister of Commerce have put Indian e-commerce companies at the forefront.

According to Reuters, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently stated that many large e-commerce companies have entered India and blatantly flouted local laws in more than one way .

“ Some companies are using their size and large pool of cheap capital to engage in predatory pricing practices, which is severely hurting the interests of small neighborhood stores in India . I have had several encounters with these big companies, especially American companies, and I can see a bit of arrogance, ” he said .

While the Indian commerce minister did not directly name Amazon India or Walmart -owned Flipkart, which dominate India's e-commerce market , nor did he specify which laws were flouted , his comments came as small traders and retailers in India accused the US giants of circumventing India's consumer protection and competition laws .

In response to the harsh criticism veiled by Indian Commerce Minister Goyal , both Amazon and Flipkart denied the allegations made by Goyal against them.

In order to limit unfair trade practices in India's e-commerce ecosystem, the new draft e-commerce rules proposed by India last week include strict policies such as restricting e-commerce platforms' "limited-time sales" activities , restricting e-commerce platforms from conducting seller advertising promotions , strictly prohibiting the manipulation of search results to mislead users , and prohibiting Amazon, Flipkart and other e-commerce companies from operating their internal/private brands . This has caused panic among e-commerce platforms such as Amazon India and Flipkart .

Judging from the new set of e-commerce rules announced by India, once implemented, it will greatly weaken the ambitions of Amazon and Flipkart in India and force the two companies to review certain business structures.

And according to the proposal of India's Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the scope of the new e-commerce rules has gone beyond online retail and extended to food delivery and even ride-hailing services.

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