Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas filed by Future Group companies seeking to quash the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon in Singapore.
In its petition filed Monday, Future Coupons asked the high court that continuance of proceedings in Singapore would be illegal in view of the recent order of Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Amazon.
The case was heard for about three hours on January 3 owing to the urgency in the case cited. The court reserved its order to be delivered on the following day, just ahead of the scheduled dates set out by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre for its meeting to carry out the arbitration proceedings in the case.
Mukul Rohatgi, senior counsel representing Future Coupons, told the Delhi high court that as per law, an arbitrator must terminate the proceeding if it has become unnecessary, adding that the company had approached the tribunal for termination of proceedings after the anti-trust watchdog’s December order. Rohatgi argued that the international arbitral tribunal was acting in a “perverse” manner and that it has yet not passed any order in the matter.
The senior lawyer informed the court that in December last year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended its more than two-year-old approval for Amazon’s deal to acquire a 49 per cent stake in FCPL, FRL’s promoter, and also imposed a Rs 202 crore penalty on the e-commerce major for “fraudulent misrepresentation”.
Amazon contested this stand by saying that arbitration and the underlying contract are independent of each other. Moreover, Amazon said it has legal options, such as appeals, available against the CCI order.
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An arbitration tribunal in Singapore has been hearing Amazon’s case against Future Group related to the 2019 deal between the two companies. While hearing this case, the tribunal had passed an interim order stalling the sale of Future Retail’s assets to Reliance Industries.
Amazon is objecting to the sell-off plans, accusing Future Group of breaching its 2019 investment pact. Future Coupons was founded in 2008 and is engaged in the business of marketing and distribution of gift cards, loyalty cards, and other reward programmes to corporate customers.
