The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) will on Thursday hear a petition filed by e-commerce major Amazon challenging a recent order of fair trade regulator CCI that suspended an over two-year-old approval for its deal with Future Coupons.
Amazon’s petition is scheduled to be heard by a two-member bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and V P Singh of the Principal bench.
In December, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had suspended its 2019 approval for Amazon's deal to acquire a 49-per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), Future Retail Ltd's promoter, while slapping a penalty of Rs 202 crore on the e-commerce major.
NCLAT is an appellate authority for the orders passed by CCI.
Last month, CCI had suspended the Amazon-FCPL deal saying the US e-commerce major had suppressed information while seeking clearances for the transaction back then.
In a 57-page order, CCI had said the approval for the Amazon-Future Coupons deal "shall remain in abeyance".
Amazon and Future have been locked in a bitter legal tussle after the US e-commerce giant dragged Future Group to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in October 2020, arguing that Future Retail Ltd (FRL) had violated their contract by entering into a deal for the sale of its assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,713 crore.
Recently, Future Retail had also approached SIAC to stay the arbitration proceedings on the basis of the order passed by CCI.
However, SIAC had rejected the plea.
Following it, Future Group had approached the Delhi High Court, where a division bench on January 5 stayed proceedings scheduled on January 5-8 at SIAC.
The said order has also been challenged by Amazon before the Supreme Court.
SIAC is adjudicating Amazon's objections against Future Group's Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, announced in August 2020 for sale of the retail and wholesale business, and the logistics and warehousing verticals.
