The Supreme Court refused to hear a plea filed by the Competition Commission of India, which sought to remove a Karnataka High Court-directed stay on its probe against Amazon and Flipkart, Bar and Bench reported. Instead, the apex court directed the Karnataka High Court to decide on the matter within six weeks, and said that it will only review the petition in case a decision isn’t made in that time frame. The CCI had ordered a probe into alleged competition law violations by Amazon and Flipkart on January 13. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the competition watchdog, reportedly said that CCI’s probe into the e-tailers would not affect the rights of any party. Mehta also said that the Karnataka High Court refused to take the case despite repeated requests from CCI. CCI's probe into Amazon and Flipkart The CCI’s probe against Amazon and Flipkart, initiated in January, was ordered to investigate four alleged violations: Exclusive launch of mobile phones Preferred sellers on the platforms Deep discounting Preferential promotion of private labels. It had initiated the probe following a complaint filed by the Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM), a group of MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) smartphone traders. DVM had accused that Amazon has certain agreements with sellers (that are allegedly controlled by the company) and that it gives these sellers unfair preferential treatment over others. These vertical agreements give an advantage to the preferred sellers, such as in the form of a preferential listing, where Amazon gives the word ‘fulfilled’…
