Statement | ADIF condemns Amazon’s predatory playbook of copying, rigging and killing Indian brands, urges Government for timely intervention
A culture of fair competition and good faith practises is absolutely essential for the health of markets and the economy, and it is also the role of regulation to bring about such an environment.
The Reuters investigation brings to light Amazon’s blatant disregard for competition laws, intellectual property rights and disgraceful predatory practices. The manner in which the e-commerce giant has targeted the Indian market and leading brands in the country is highly deplorable and brings into question the credibility of Amazon as a good faith operator in the Indian startup ecosystem.
These findings go on to validate the allegations and fears of various stakeholders and serve as incriminating evidence. It’s worth noting that Amazon has on multiple occasions, including during formal hearings, denied any wrongdoing that involves making use of consumer data to drive advantage for its own brands and products.
The findings bring to light that it's a systematic design – a playbook if you will – by Amazon to predate and kill competition by weaponizing every tool at its disposal. Amazon taking advantage of consumer data that they are in possession of, using that information to the detriment of the brands and sellers that helped generate the data in the first place, and then rigging search results to further hurt the original brands is an economic offence of the highest order, one that has destructive consequences for markets and falls foul of fair competition practices.
These findings serve as a further fillip for the intent of the Government to introduce reforms in the e-commerce marketplace. The recent draft regulations have been aimed at targeting predatory practices using intermediaries for the protection and benefit of sellers, manufactures and consumers.
It is important for every ecosystem stakeholder and the Government to join hands and intervene to ensure that Amazon abides by the laws of the land and also adopts ethical practice of doing business. A culture of fair competition and good faith practises is absolutely essential for the health of markets and the economy, and it is also the role of regulation to bring about such an environment. Timely action on the part of the regulators is the need of the hour and speed is also of the essence – more and more brands get killed with the passage of time.
A situation where Amazon, or any player for that matter, acts as the powerful online marketplace, seller and collector of data, cannot bode well for the health of the e-commerce market, neither will it be in the interest of the consumers – both in the short term and the long term. This has to stop right now. This development also brings to attention the significance and importance of good data protection laws for the health and prosperity of digital markets.
As one of our Alliance members and a brand owner put it “Hope the authorities take the necessary actions to put an end to this!”
ADIF is an Alliance of individuals, founders & organisations with the mission of transforming India into one of the best startup ecosystems in the world. The goal is to get to the top 3 by 2030. The Alliance is now 400+ members strong.
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