The Supreme Court has agreed to take up for early hearing the Competition Commission of India (CCI)’s plea to transfer petitions pending in various high courts against the regulator’s move to probe alleged predatory practices adopted by e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart and their vendors to either the top court or Delhi High Court.

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna gave the assurance to attorney-general R. Venkataramani appearing for the CCI during the mentioning time when the AG sought for an urgent listing of the petition.

“We have already done it,” the CJI said. The matter is likely to be listed on Friday or next week.

The CCI has moved the application to transfer over 24 petitions filed by Amazon, Flipkart and its various vendors, including Samsung and Vivo, challenging the regulatory body’s 2020 decision to conduct investigations into the alleged malpractices and predatory tactics by the e-commerce giants to favour vendors such as Samsung and Vivo.

The petitions had been filed in the high courts of Delhi, Allahabad, Punjab and Haryana, besides Karnataka.

In January 2021, the CCI commenced a probe against the two e-commerce giants for alleged predatory sales and discount policies on a complaint filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh.

The Delhi organisation had filed a complaint on October 24, 2019 before the CCI under Section 19 (1) (a) of the Competition Act, 2002.

It alleged that the companies were involved in anti-competitive practices and conduct such as deep discounting, preferential listing, sale of private label brands through preferential sellers and exclusive tie-ups that violated Section 3(1) read with section 3(4) of the Act.

The Supreme Court had earlier in August 2021 dismissed a special leave petition filed by Amazon and Flipkart challenging the probe by the CCI.

“We expect big organisations like Amazon, Flipkart to voluntarily go for enquiry and you don’t want even that? we will ensure you do that,” Justice N.V. Ramana said. Despite the earlier dismissal, various high courts had been flooded by the e-commerce vendors, challenging the investigations, prompting the CCI to file the transfer petition.

Amazon and Flipkart had earlier contended that there was neither any anti-competitive agreements nor any adverse effect of such competition warranting a CCI probe.