Flipkart says NCLAT order ‘erroneous’, SC stays measure

New Delhi, Dec 2 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT) March 4 order asking the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to initiate a probe against e-commerce major Flipkart for alleged use of its dominant position.
The NCLAT had held the prima facie Flipkart had contravened Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 which is connected with the abuse of dominant position and predatory pricing.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Flipkart, said that the NCLAT did not look at the CCI findings, but instead relied on the tax department findings and also misread the findings of the tax tribunal in an unrelated case.
Contending that the order was passed on erroneous premise that Flipkart had a dominant position in the e-commerce market, Salve held that there were many players in this nature of business and it is not correct to label his client as a dominant player.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian, initially said the judgment of the tribunal is relevant and the bench is keen to send back the matter to the NCLAT.
Salve, however, argued that dominant position should enable a player to operate independently of competitive forces and indicated there were other major players like Amazon.