Mainline mobile retailers, represented by the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), on Thursday urged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to cancel licences of smartphone brands – POCO and OnePlus over alleged anti-competitive trade practices.
In a letter to CCI chairperson Ravneet Kaur, AIMRA said the smartphone brands are violating the country’s rules and laws, and they are the root cause of many trade problems. The association’s letter to CCI chairperson has come after it accused POCO and OnePlus of engaging in monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices that favour online sales channels.
AIMRA represents over 150,000 mobile retailers across India.
“The actions taken by the CCI to identify and address malpractices within ecommerce platforms and the collusion with mobile phone manufacturers are crucial in preserving the integrity of the retail ecosystem,” said Kailash Lakhyani, founder chairman of AIMRA.
“We have faith that strict actions and penalties will be taken against violators to maintain a level playing field and fair competition,” Lakhyani added.
Last month, in a letter to POCO India country head Himanshu Tandon, AIMRA said that POCO’s strategy appears to be establishing collusion with e-commerce platforms to distribute products through unauthorised channels, bypassing legitimate distributors and evading taxes.
Retailers said, since the company’s products are not available in mainline (offline) stores, many unorganised offline retailers as well as individuals purchase the same from e-commerce websites at discounts, they then sell the products to consumers.
Similarly many retailers across the country have stopped selling OnePlus phones from May 1. This is because of reasons such as OnePlus’ unprofessional approach towards offline retailers, pricing disparity between online and offline, weak margin structure, and significant delay in claim settlement.
