India’s commerce minister slams US e-commerce giants

New Delhi, June 28: India’s Federal Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has slammed US e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart, accusing them of arrogance and of flouting Indian laws by indulging in predatory pricing practices.

Mr Goyal said that these companies were using their scale and access to large pools of low-cost capital to indulge in predatory pricing practices.

Without directly naming Amazon.com or Walmart's Flipkart or specify which laws had been violated, he said, “A number of these large e-commerce companies have come into India and very blatantly flouted the laws of the land in more ways than one.” Addressing a virtual event recently, the minister said, “I've had several engagements with these large companies, particularly the American ones, and I can see a little bit of arrogance,” he said.

His comments came at a time of growing clamour from India's small traders and retailers, who accuse the US giants of circumventing the country’s consumer protection laws and competition laws. Piyush Goyal also criticised companies for indulging in "forum shopping" in courts and failing to comply with an investigation launched by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

The US-India Business Council, a top US lobby group, described the proposed
new e-commerce rules as concerning in an internal memo this week.