US officers rushed to defend Amazon’s enterprise practices in India after Reuters reported in February that the corporate had favoured sure sellers on its web site and bypassed native legislation that requires international e-commerce firms to deal with all distributors equally, paperwork obtained by the information company present.
Emails obtained by means of the US Freedom of Information Act from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) confirmed that US officers ready a observe for John Kerry, a prime envoy of President Joe Biden, in regards to the February 17 report. The observe, contained in an electronic mail dated February 18, stated that India’s antitrust watchdog had reviewed many such allegations towards US e-commerce firms and located nothing mistaken.
Biden’s envoy, former US Secretary of State Kerry, is answerable for local weather change coverage. He was scheduled to talk that day with India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. The US authorities was involved that Goyal would carry up the Reuters story, so it swiftly drafted a observe in regards to the article in case he did, the emails present.
“This could come up in the call since as you know Minister Goyal is prone to bring up tangential topics,” Thomas Carnegie, a US embassy official in New Delhi, emailed an official on the USTR.
Philip M. Ingeneri, one other US embassy official, additionally advised the USTR official in an electronic mail on February 18 that he had “verified” the contents of the observe ready for Kerry with Amazon India’s authorities affairs chief as “true and accurate.” The emails don’t describe what finally occurred in the course of the Kerry-Goyal name.
The US embassy in New Delhi referred inquiries to the US Department of State in Washington, which stated it anticipated that any points relating to US e-commerce firms’ practices in India could be reviewed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) “with the same level of independence, transparency, and professionalism it has demonstrated in the past.”
Spokespeople for Kerry, the USTR, and Goyal didn’t reply to Reuters queries.
The report in February, primarily based on inner Amazon paperwork, revealed that the US agency has for years given preferential therapy to a small group of sellers on its India platform, circumventing the nation’s powerful international funding guidelines which are geared toward defending small Indian brick-and-mortar retailers.
The article stirred up weeks of controversy in India, sparking calls from merchants to ban Amazon. The CCI stated in March that the story corroborated proof it had acquired towards Amazon, whereas the Enforcement Directorate, India’s financial-crime combating company, requested Amazon for info and paperwork associated to the corporate’s Indian operations, Reuters has reported. The CCI enforces India’s antitrust legal guidelines.
‘Sensational language’
In a March 16 electronic mail to US officers, together with on the USTR’s workplace, Ingeneri wrote, in an obvious reference to the February article, {that a} Reuters reporter had used “sensationalist language” and relied on Amazon’s “activity before 2018 that was aggressive but not illegal at the time.” The subsequent sentence within the electronic mail was redacted.
In response to questions from Reuters, a spokeswoman for Amazon in India stated the corporate had no remark.
Amazon has beforehand advised Reuters it “doesn’t give preferential therapy to any vendor on its market,” and that it “treats all sellers in a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner.”
But inner Amazon paperwork present that the e-commerce big discounted its charges to sure sellers on its platform, and that just a few dozen of Amazon’s greater than 400,000 sellers in early 2019 accounted for about two-thirds of the e-commerce web site’s on-line gross sales.
The observe ready for Kerry summarised the Reuters story’s findings. Among them: that Amazon senior government Jay Carney had been suggested by colleagues in 2019 to not confide in India’s ambassador in Washington that two sellers on Amazon’s Indian web site accounted for a big chunk of its gross sales. Amazon holds oblique fairness stakes in these sellers.
From 2009 to 2011, Carney served as President Biden’s communications director when Biden was vice chairman, earlier than happening to function press secretary to President Barack Obama. The observe for Kerry recognized Carney as “Amazon Senior Vice President and former Obama Administration spokesman.”
Carney had no remark for this text, the Amazon spokeswoman stated.
Under the headline “If Asked: Allegations of Amazon E-Commerce Violations,” the observe acknowledged: “We have seen a February 17 Reuters report raising concerns about US e-commerce companies’ practices in India and note many of the allegations have been previously reviewed by the Competition Commission of India without any negative findings.” The electronic mail with the observe was marked “SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.”
“The Reuters article repeated prior allegations made by small traders,” the observe acknowledged. The partially redacted observe additionally acknowledged that “since 2013, Amazon has invested over $5.5 billion (roughly Rs. 400,50 crores) in India, employs 100,000 Indians, and supports 400,000 vendors on its market.”
India’s strict international funding guidelines for e-commerce have triggered friction between Washington and New Delhi, and pissed off US corporations with on-line companies in India, similar to Amazon and Walmart.
The CCI in January 2020 launched a probe into Amazon on allegations it was favouring sure sellers, however the investigation has been on maintain as the corporate mounted a courtroom problem. A separate antitrust criticism by a gaggle of on-line sellers filed towards Amazon is at the moment pending evaluation by the CCI.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
