Amazon, Flipkart fall afoul of India’s antitrust regulators

The news: Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart allegedly broke India’s antitrust laws by giving a small group of sellers preferential treatment, according to two separate investigations by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) reported by Reuters. Both companies deny the charges and will likely file objections before the CCI imposes fines.

The findings: Per the CCI, both Flipkart and Amazon created systems that gave preferred sellers better search visibility and other benefits—such as vastly reduced prices for marketing and delivery services—that boosted their businesses at the expense of other merchants.

The two are also accused of engaging in deep discounting for products like mobile phones to undercut smaller competitors.