Big news! More than 2,000 sellers sued Amazon

In the past two days, my brother-in-law's net worth has exceeded 200 billion US dollars , breaking the highest wealth record of billionaires in the Forbes list in nearly 40 years, but Amazon is in trouble.

The All India Online Vendors Association, an alliance of more than 2,000 online sellers, recently filed a monopoly lawsuit against Amazon in India, accusing Amazon of favoring some retailers that sell goods at large discounts, making it difficult for independent third-party retailers to survive.

The case represents a new regulatory challenge for Amazon in India, where the e-commerce market is growing rapidly and Amazon has pledged to invest $6.5 billion. But it also faces a complex regulatory environment.

In January this year, the Competition Commission of India ( CCI ), India's antitrust body, ordered an investigation into Amazon and its rival e-commerce platform Flipkart , accusing them of violating fair competition laws and certain discount practices. Amazon has challenged this.

In the latest case, the All India Online Suppliers Association, whose members sell goods on Amazon and Flipkart , accused Amazon of engaging in unfair business practices.

The alliance claims that Amazon India's "wholesale business unit" buys goods in bulk from manufacturers and sells them at a loss to sellers such as Cloudail , who then sell the goods on Amazon at a deep discount .

In response, the All India Online Suppliers Association said in a complaint filed with the Competition Commission of India: “Such anti-competitive arrangements drive independent sellers out of the market, resulting in a loss of fair competition in the market.”

Amazon has not yet commented on this. But Amazon has previously said that the company complies with all Indian laws and treats all sellers on its platform equally.

It is understood that Amazon has previously received an investigation from the Indian antitrust agency "Competition Commission". The "All India Online Suppliers Association" stated that some of Amazon's actions have made it impossible for many small and medium-sized third-party merchants to survive and lose the opportunity for fair competition.

In fact, not only in India, antitrust investigations against Amazon are continuing around the world. Just this month, on August 4 , Bloomberg reported that attorneys general from New York and California are working with the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Amazon.com Inc. 's online market.

Earlier, after Canadian government agencies said they were investigating, German authorities also said they were investigating its relationship with its third-party traders.

A German antitrust investigation agency said it was investigating whether Amazon had affected market prices. During the pandemic, as a large number of users entered Amazon's website, some consumers reported that it had closed some third-party merchants and raised prices.

Canada's antitrust investigation is also intended to investigate whether Amazon has different strategies for its own products and products from third-party merchants.