The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday postponed the hearing on Amazon’s request for an interim stay of the ruling issued by fair trade regulator CCI suspending the over-two-year-old permission for its agreement with Future Coupons Pvt Ltd till February 25. (FCPL).
When the case was called for hearing, a two-member bench acknowledged the difficulty in hearing it on Monday since one of the members is departing after his term ends in four days.
NCLAT would have to hear from more parties, such as the fair-trade regulator CCI, before passing an order, which would take longer, and the departing member would no longer be on the bench.
“As a result, we are deferring the matter until next week,” the NCLAT bench ruled, instructing Amazon’s request to be heard on February 25.
During the hearings, Amazon’s senior counsel, Gopal Subramaniam, filed a stay of the CCI order, citing the fact that the 60-day deadline to implement the CCI order is approaching this week. The bench, on the other hand, stated that the original order was issued on December 16 and that the case might be heard next week.
“We oppose any extension of the 60 days. A Rs 200 crore fine has been issued. Whether they pay it now or later is irrelevant. There is no need to hurry. The CCI has given Amazon 60 days to submit a new application. If they want to apply, they can; if they don’t, they can’t “, FCPL’s senior counsel Rohatgi stated.
On February 7, the NCLAT scheduled a hearing for Amazon’s appeal on February 14 to hear and issue an interim injunction halting the implementation of the order issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in December last year the matter is resolved.
The CCI had suspended the Amazon-FCPL agreement in December, claiming that the US e-commerce giant had withheld information while seeking clearances for the merger.
CCI had declared the permission for the Amazon-Future Coupons agreement “must stay in abeyance” in a 57-page judgment.
Future Retail had recently asked SIAC to request a suspension of the arbitration proceedings based on the CCI judgment.
SIAC, on the other hand, had turned down the request.
Future Group then went to the Delhi High Court, where a division bench on January 5 postponed hearings before SIAC slated for January 5-8.
Amazon has also filed a lawsuit against the order in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court overturned three Delhi High Court rulings earlier this month, including the refusal to grant a stay on the final arbitral award that had prevented Future Retail Ltd from proceeding with its Rs 24,731-crore merger transaction with Reliance Retail, and ordered a new adjudication.
The Supreme Court also overturned a High Court order from February 2 last year, in which the court ordered Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to retain the status quo in the merger arrangement.
Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter
