ED has raided the offices of many sellers selling goods on Amazon-Flipkart. These sellers are accused of violating foreign investment rules. ED has raided the offices of many sellers in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. This action has been taken against the sellers selling goods on the e-commerce platform after the decision of the anti-trust body CCI, in which the possibility of them making irregularities in foreign investment has been expressed. CCI has sent notices to e-commerce companies several times regarding this.
Allegation of violation of PMLA
According to the Reuters report, ED has raided the offices of many sellers selling goods on these two leading e-commerce platforms. They have been accused of violating foreign exchange rules. CCI had warned these sellers about this several times. Now the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started investigating the case regarding violation of PMLA i.e. money laundering rules.
According to the report, ED officials say that there is a possibility of foreign exchange rules being violated by sellers selling goods on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. ED will investigate how the prices of products sold on e-commerce platforms are indirectly affected? How these companies give preference to some sellers on their platform and the price of the product gets reduced.
Raid at 19 locations
CCI had earlier also issued a notice to these e-commerce companies regarding giving preference and said that it was against fair competition. According to the report, ED has raided 19 locations in the country. However, the name of these locations has not been disclosed yet. Both the e-commerce companies have not yet issued any statement. In the last few years, both these e-commerce platforms have grown rapidly. Both these companies have contributed significantly to the growing e-commerce sector in India.
According to the report, ED has been scrutinizing the business modules of these two companies for the last few years. According to Indian law, e-commerce platforms should act as a neutral marketplace and not have direct control over product inventory. ED is investigating the violation of foreign direct investment rules from this angle.
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