NEW DELHI: Amazon.com Inc is taking India's financial crime fighting agency to court, seeking to quash an investigation into one of its 2019 deals, a court filing seen by Reuters shows.
India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) has for months been probing Amazon's $200 million investment in India's Future Group for suspected violations of foreign investment laws.
The investment is at the center of protracted legal battles, as Amazon has used the terms of that deal — and cited contract breaches by Future — to stall the $3.4 billion sale of the Indian company's retail assets to a rival.
In an 816-page filing, seen by Reuters, Amazon calls the investigation a "fishing and roving" inquiry, saying the ED had sought privileged legal advice and opinions from Amazon and other information not connected to the Future Group deal.
Multiple Amazon executives, including its India head, had been summoned by the ED in recent weeks and the investigation had caused "unnecessary harassment," the US e-commerce giant said in its filing to the Delhi High Court on Dec. 21.
"The directions by the ED asking for disclosure of legally privileged documents and litigation privilege information is derogatory of the principles" laid out in Indian constitution, Amazon said in the filing, which is not public.
"The investigation is a fishing and roving exercise."
Amazon and the ED, which does not make details of its investigations public, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The case will likely be heard on Thursday.
The filing is the latest twist in the long-running dispute between Amazon and Future. Though India's antitrust body suspended their 2019 deal last week, saying Amazon had suppressed information when seeking approvals for it, the ED's probe is independent of that.
The dispute centres around three commercial agreements signed between Future and Amazon entities, which a Singapore arbitration panel — also hearing the dispute — has said must be read together when reviewing the transaction.
Future contends conflating the commercial agreements would effectively mean the deal violated Indian law.
Amazon's court filing contained a notice from the ED dated Feb. 19 which sought details of its investment in Future, including copies of agreements, bank account details and other related internal communication.
It also showed the ED is conducting a far wider probe, and had sought details of big vendors on Amazon's e-commerce website in India, including sales numbers for those that account for more than 5% of total sales on Amazon.in.
The notice came after a February Reuters investigation which found Amazon helped a small number of sellers prosper on its Indian platform, giving them discounted fees and using them to bypass foreign investment laws.
Amazon said at the time it was confident it complied with regulations and that it "does not give preferential treatment to any seller on its marketplace."
Amazon sues financial crime agency in latest twist of Indian battle
https://arab.news/mb2m4
Amazon sues financial crime agency in latest twist of Indian battle
- Multiple Amazon executives, including its India head, had been summoned by the ED in recent weeks
EU assembly weighs freezing US trade deal over Trump’s Greenland threats
- Signatories were mainly fellow members of Clausen’s Left Group, but also included center-left Social Democrats and Greens
- Greens lawmaker Anna Cavazzini said the only argument in favor of the deal was to bring stability
BRUSSELS: The European Parliament is considering putting on hold the European Union’s implementation of the trade deal struck with the United States in protest over threats by US President Donald Trump to seize Greenland.
The European Parliament has been debating legislative proposals to remove many of the EU’s import duties on US goods — the bulk of the trade deal with the US — and to continue zero duties for US lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020.
It was due to set its position in votes on January 26-27, which the MEPs said should now be postponed.
Leading members of the cross-parliamentary trade committee met to discuss the issue on Wednesday morning and decide whether to postpone the vote. In the end, they took no decision and settled on reconvening next week.
A parliamentary source said left-leaning and centrist groups favored taking action, such as a postponement.
A group of 23 lawmakers also urged the EU assembly’s president Roberta Metsola on Wednesday to freeze work on the agreement as long as the US administration continued its threats to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
“If we go through and approve a deal that Trump has seen as a personal victory, while he makes claims for Greenland and refuses to rule out any manner in which to achieve this, it will be easily seen as rewarding him and his actions,” the letter drafted by Danish lawmaker Per Clausen said.
Signatories were mainly fellow members of Clausen’s Left Group, but also included center-left Social Democrats and Greens.
Greens lawmaker Anna Cavazzini said the only argument in favor of the deal was to bring stability.
“Trump’s actions show again and again that chaos is his only offer,” she said.
French lawmaker Valerie Hayer, head of the centrist Renew Europe group, said on Tuesday the EU should consider holding off a vote if Trump’s threats continued.
Many lawmakers have complained that the US trade deal is lopsided, with the EU required to cut most import duties while the US sticks to a broad rate of 15 percent.
However, freezing the deal risks angering Trump, which could lead to higher US tariffs. The Trump administration has also ruled out any concessions, such as cutting tariffs on spirits or steel, until the deal is in place.
