Amazon’s challenge against Future Group’s $3.4 billion deal with Reliance Industries will see a Supreme Court ruling today.
At the end of one of the most bitterly fought battles in the world’s only billion-plus retail market open to foreign competition, Amazon’s challenge against Future Group’s $3.4 billion deal with Reliance Industries will see a Supreme Court ruling today.
Saying that Future group violated contracts by agreeing to sell retail assets to market leader Reliance Industries last year for over ₹ 27,000 crore, Amazon had taken its partner company to the court. However, the Future group has denied any wrongdoing.
The Apex Court, last week, had reserved its judgement in the case and is set to decide whether a ruling by a Singapore tribunal restraining Future from going ahead with its merger with Reliance is valid.
In February, a Delhi court had given a shocker to the American E-commerce giant by revoking a previous court decision that effectively blocked the deal. After that, Amazon filed an appeal against it in the Supreme Court.
The order by the Delhi court was “illegal” and “arbitrary” and the company which has committed $6.5 billion in investments in India would face “irreparable harm” if the top court did not intervene, Amazon had said in its court filing.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, the world’s two of the richest men are staked up against each other in the legal fight over Future’s assets. The final outcome will be seen shaping India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and will determine if Amazon is able to dent the dominance of Reliance.
The Bezos-owned firm has argued that a 2019 deal it had with a Future unit included clauses saying the Indian group couldn’t sell its retail assets to anyone on a “restricted persons” list, including Reliance.
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