Reliance and Amazon are both aggressively expanding their online and offline retail offerings in India in a bid to capture the country's rapidly growing retail market. But Reliance's attempt to acquire the debt-ridden Future Retail to do this has been legally challenged by e-commerce giant Amazon. Here's everything you need to know about the battle between these companies which have been going back and forth since October 2020. Origins of the issue Amazon acquires stake in Future Coupons (November 2019): Amazon received approval to acquire a 49 percent equity in Future Coupons, the promoter entity of Future Retail, which operates 900 stores in India, including 293 Big Bazaar stores. Since Future Coupons owned a 7.3 percent stake in Future Retail, the deal gave Amazon a 3.58 percent stake in Future Retail. Reliance announces it will acquire Future Retail (August 2020) – Reliance Industries announced it will buy most of Future Group’s retail, wholesale, and logistics business in a deal worth Rs 24,713 crore, offering Future a lifeline in the face of mounting debts, potentially saving thousands of jobs. Amazon accuses Future of breach of contract and obtains injunction order from Singapore (October 2020) – Amazon accused Future Group of breach of contract and slapped it with a legal notice over the Future-Reliance deal. Amazon reportedly had a non-compete-like pact and right of first refusal against deals with competitors like Reliance Retail. On October 25, Amazon obtained an injunction order against the Future-Reliance deal from an emergency arbitrator appointed by the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). Future goes to Delhi High Court…
