The Supreme Court transferred all cases concerning alleged anti-competitive practices by Amazon and Flipkart to the Karnataka High Court’s single-judge bench. This move aims to streamline legal proceedings and consolidate the scattered petitions for a more cohesive adjudication.
The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Abhay Oka and Pankaj Mithal, ordered the transfer after all parties agreed to the proposal. Consequently, the Karnataka High Court’s Dharwad bench will now oversee ongoing and newly transferred cases.
The directive follows the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) request to centralise the petitions pending in various High Courts, citing the need for judicial efficiency and uniformity in handling the antitrust allegations.
The transferred petitions, numbering 24, were initially filed across multiple jurisdictions, including the High Courts of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, Karnataka, and Allahabad. The cases stem from complaints lodged by Delhi Vyapar Sangh (Confederation of All India Traders), a trade group, accusing Amazon and Flipkart of violating the Competition Act of 2002.

These allegations centre on anti-competitive practices related to selling and purchasing mobile phones on their platforms.
In August, the CCI’s investigation unit concluded that Amazon and Flipkart had breached antitrust laws by favouring specific sellers and facilitating exclusive product launches by smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung and Vivo. The commission found that these practices distorted market fair competition and consumer choice.
The CCI ordered several smartphone makers to submit financial statements covering the past three fiscal years for further scrutiny.
As The Economic Times reports, since the release of the CCI’s findings, nearly two dozen lawsuits have been filed by various stakeholders, including vendors associated with Amazon and Flipkart, as well as smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Vivo. These lawsuits aim to delay or block the investigation, which the CCI has criticised as an attempt to “debilitate and scuttle” the regulatory process.
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