Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. have come together in India to lobby against the regulations on the ecommerce industry.
The bitter rivals feel threatened, and have said that the government's move dampens their expansion plans. The E-tailers are asking for an extension of the 1st February deadline on implementing new rules.
The tightened regulations threaten Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart in one of the world's fastest growing online commerce arenas. Both these companies have already invested billions of dollars for their operations in India.
The new regulation requires online marketplaces to treat all vendors equally, bars foreign companies from featuring exclusive products on their platforms and checks price change offered by huge discounts.
Both these giants Amazon and Flipkart fill their inventory through companies they own or back. One such seller is Cloudtail which is a joint venture between Amazon and a company run by Infosys Ltd billionaire co-founder Narayana Murthy. As per the new rules American companies must sell any stakes they hold in such companies.
Walmart invested $16 billion last year to acquire Flipkart Online Services Pvt, and Amazon invested in offline retailers like Shopper's Stop and is reportedly discussing investing in Future Retail.