NCLAT reserves order on Amazon's plea against CCI ruling

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has reserved its order on Amazon's plea challenging the decision of regulator CCI to suspend approval for the e-commerce major's deal with Future Coupons.

In December last year, Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended the approval given by it in 2019 for Amazon's deal to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL).

The regulator had said that Amazon suppressed information while seeking clearances for the transaction back then and also slapped a fine of Rs 202 crore on the company.

FCPL is a promoter of Future Retail Ltd (FRL).

Amazon had opposed FRL's deal to sell assets to Reliance Retail as part of a Rs 24,713 crore deal, which has now been called off.

The deal was opposed by the e-commerce major on the basis of its 2019 transaction whereby it had acquired the 49 per cent stake in FCPL.

NCLAT has concluded its hearing on the Amazon's plea after observing that all parties have complied with its earlier directions issued in the last hearing on April 11 to file revised notes of submissions along with relevant citations before the registry.

"Hearing is concluded in all these three appeals 'judgment' is reserved," a two-member bench of NCLAT, comprising Justice M Venugopal and Ashok Kumar Mishra, said on Monday.

Apart from Amazon's plea, the appellate tribunal has reserved the order on two other petitions in the matter filed by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF).