The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected the plea of Future Group against Amazon in which the former had sought to restrain the e-commerce giant from interfering in its deal with Reliance Industries inked in August.
The court’s decision comes a month after the Competition Commission of India or CCI had given the approval to Reliance to acquire the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses of Future Group.
“..both FRL and Amazon have already made their representations and counter representations to the statutory authorities/regulators and now it is for the Statutory Authorities/Regulators to take a decision thereon.. Consequently, the present application is disposed off, declining the grant of interim injunction as prayed for by FRL, however, the Statutory Authorities/Regulators are directed to take the decision on the applications/objections in accordance with the law,” the Court’s order said.
On August 29, Reliance had announced the acquisition of businesses of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore or $3.4 billion. However, Amazon has been opposing the deal since day one and referring to a non-compete clause that bars Future Group from making any deal with 30 companies including Reliance Industries Limited without its approval.
On the basis of the clause, an emergency arbitrator at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) had issued an interim order in favour of Amazon in October. Amazon also took the matter to SEBI and stock exchanges, accusing Future of misleading the public by making incorrect market disclosures. However, Future Group denied the allegations.
To counter Amazon, Future Group moved Delhi High Court in November seeking relief against Amazon from interfering with the deal and alleged that it was misusing an interim order passed by a Singapore arbitrator.
Last year, Amazon had picked up a 49% stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd for Rs 1,430 crore. The e-commerce giant got a minority stake of 9.83% in Future Retail with the right to buy into Future Retail after a period between 3 and 10 years.
