US Defended Amazon After Article Showed Company Bypassed Indian Law

U.S. officers rushed to defend Amazon’s enterprise practices in India after Reuters reported in February that the corporate had favored sure sellers on its web site and bypassed native regulation that requires international e-commerce corporations to deal with all distributors equally, paperwork obtained by the information company present. Emails obtained by way of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) confirmed that U.S. officers ready a word for John Kerry, a prime envoy of President Joe Biden, concerning the Feb. 17 Reuters report.

The word, contained in an electronic mail dated Feb. 18, mentioned that India’s antitrust watchdog had reviewed many such allegations in opposition to U.S. e-commerce corporations and located nothing flawed. Biden’s envoy, former U.S. 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 U.S. authorities was involved that Goyal would carry up the Reuters story, so it swiftly drafted a word concerning 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 U.S. embassy official in New Delhi, emailed an official on the USTR. Philip M. Ingeneri, one other U.S. embassy official, additionally informed the USTR official in an electronic mail on Feb. 18 that he had “verified” the contents of the word ready for Kerry with Amazon India’s authorities affairs chief as “true and accurate.” The emails don’t describe what finally occurred through the Kerry-Goyal name.

The U.S. embassy in New Delhi referred inquiries to the U.S. Department of State in Washington, which mentioned it anticipated that any points concerning U.S. e-commerce corporations’ practices in India can 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 Reuters report in February, primarily based on inside Amazon paperwork, revealed that the U.S. agency has for years given preferential remedy to a small group of sellers on its India platform, circumventing the nation’s powerful international funding guidelines which might be aimed 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 mentioned in March that the story corroborated proof it had obtained in opposition to 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.
 

‘Sensationalist Language’

In a March 16 electronic mail to U.S. 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 mentioned the corporate had no remark. Amazon has beforehand informed Reuters it “does not give preferential treatment to any seller on its marketplace,” and that it “treats all sellers in a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner.”

But inside Amazon paperwork present that the e-commerce large discounted its charges to sure sellers on its platform, and that a couple of 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 word ready for Kerry summarized the Reuters story’s findings. Among them: that Amazon senior govt Jay Carney had been suggested by colleagues in 2019 to not open up to 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 occurring to function press secretary to President Barack Obama. The word for Kerry recognized Carney as “Amazon Senior Vice President and former Obama Administration spokesman.” Carney had no remark for this text, the Amazon spokeswoman mentioned.

Under the headline “If Asked: Allegations of Amazon E-Commerce Violations,” the word acknowledged: “We have seen a February 17 Reuters report raising concerns about U.S. 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 word was marked “SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.”

“The Reuters article repeated prior allegations made by small traders,” the word acknowledged. The partially redacted word additionally acknowledged that “since 2013, Amazon has invested over $5.5 billion in India, employs 100,000 Indians, and supports 400,000 vendors on its market.”

India’s strict international funding guidelines for e-commerce have brought about friction between Washington and New Delhi, and annoyed U.S. corporations with on-line companies in India, equivalent to Amazon and Walmart Inc.

The CCI in January 2020 launched a probe into Amazon on allegations it was favoring sure sellers, however the investigation has been on maintain as the corporate mounted a court docket problem. A separate antitrust criticism by a gaggle of on-line sellers filed in opposition to Amazon is at the moment pending overview by the CCI.