All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), which represents consumer products distributors, has filed an antitrust case against online fast-delivery enterprises such as Zepto, Zomato, and Swiggy, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The federation has filed the case with the competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), seeking a probe into alleged deep discounting practices adopted in business by Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto.
“An alarming trend of predatory pricing and deep discounting practices by Q-commerce platforms resulted in unfair pricing models,” said the case filing reviewed by Reuters.
Swiggy, Zomato and CCI didn’t respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, while Zepto declined to comment.
Based on the filing, CCI may ask its investigation unit to investigate the matter and dismiss the case if the findings fail to prove AICPDF’s claims. With 4 lakh distributor-members, AICPDF supplies products of Nestle, Unilever and Tata to 13 million retailers in India.
Importantly, the retail distributors’ body had reportedly last year as well sought an antitrust investigation into Blinkit, Swiggy, and Zepto for alleged predatory pricing, claiming that consumer goods firms were directly dealing with quick commerce companies to boost their reach, hurting traditional salespeople who go to every shop to deliver orders.
Last year, according to a Reuters report, an antitrust investigation revealed that e-commerce companies in India Amazon and Flipkart allegedly favoured select sellers on their shopping portals in certain listings, violating competition laws in the country. The companies, however, had denied the allegations.
Similarly, a CCI probe last year had reportedly found Zomato and Swiggy breaching competition laws by allegedly giving preference to select restaurants listed on their platforms.