Walmart, Amazon shape online sellers lobby to fight new e-commerce rules

Business Standard Walmart, Amazon shape online sellers lobby to fight new e-commerce rules

With more than 90% of the labor force employed in the informal economy, the government has struggled to produce reliable data to get an accurate read on the level of joblessness in India

Companies News: Hit by the latest e-commerce rules, American majors Walmart and Amazon are planning to pitch the sellers on their Indian platforms against the domestic lobby groups such as the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), it is learnt.

The newly renamed Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had last week clarified that there would be no extension to the February 1 deadline for e-commerce firms to comply with the conditions related to the FDI policy in the sector (known as Press Note 2), triggering panic among prominent online firms such as Amazon India and Walmartowned Flipkart.

Since CAIT and SJM have been pushing the government for an e-commerce policy that keeps in mind the interests of traders, the foreign majors are trying to get their sellers together and put forward their cause. Since the two biggest e-commerce companies have been adversely affected by the new conditions in Press Note 2, they are arming themselves with a parallel lobby group represented by sellers ahead of a proposed e-commerce policy.

The financial hit DPIIT’s move to not extend the February 1 deadline has had an adverse affect on business as both Amazon India and Flipkart have had to cut down their number of sellers by as much as 30 per cent. They have had to slash sales in almost 60 categories involving 45 million products...Read More