Amazon had a 24 percent stake in Cloudtail which has reportedly allowed the e-commerce giant to sidestep India's FDI regulations so far. Amazon and Catamaran have decided to end their seven-year-old joint venture partnership in Prione Business Services, which owns Cloudtail, the e-commerce giant said in a statement on August 9. The joint venture will continue to function until the end of its current term on May 19, 2022. This surprise announcement came a few hours after the Supreme Court refused to halt the Competition Commission of India's probe into Amazon and Flipkart. Why it matters? Cloudtail has been at the centre of many accusations levied against Amazon with retailer bodies complaining that the seller makes the bulk of the sales on the platform and that it receives preferential treatment from Amazon. The decision to end this joint venture has far-reaching implications for the e-commerce industry, as well as the offline retail space. What led to this decision? Both Amazon and Catamaran did not say why they decided to end their partnership. "The silence over the exact reason behind the disbanding of Prione from both sides – Amazon and Catamaran has left open tremendous scope for speculation. However, the decision coming on the same day as the Supreme Court giving its nod to a CCI probe into alleged anti-competitive practices of the former (and Flipkart) could not be mere coincidence," Nikhil Varma, Managing Partner, Miglani Varma & Co told MediaNama. "Amazon has repeatedly come under fire on the issue of…
