Thousands of Indian small businesses will organise an event
this week in protest at the business practices of foreign e-tailers like
Amazon.com Inc, taking a dig at the U.S. group's summit with their own event.
Starting Thursday, Amazon is organising a virtual summit in
India named "Smbhav", which phonetically means "possible"
in Hindi, to showcase opportunities offered by the U.S. firm to get small
businesses to expand and sell online.
Trader groups representing 600,000 sellers said in a
statement they will at the same time launch a summit titled
"Asmbhav", or "impossible", including an award ceremony to
pin the blame on those who they think have hurt their businesses.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Indian traders, who are a crucial part of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's support base, have long alleged that Amazon and Walmart Inc's
Flipkart benefit a few big sellers and that the companies engage in predatory
pricing that harms their businesses. The companies say they comply with all
laws.
A Reuters special report published in February revealed
Amazon has for years given preferential treatment to a small group of sellers
on its Indian platform and used them to circumvent the country's strict foreign
investment regulations.
Amazon has said it "does not give preferential
treatment to any seller on its marketplace".
The Smbhav event will include more than 70 speakers and aims
to allow small businesses to learn how to grow their businessesin India - a key
growth market for Amazon.
The event "puts forth how Amazon and our partners
leverage digitisation, technology & our ecosystem to drive infinite
possibilities for a Digital India", its website said.
In a statement, trader groups including the All India Mobile
Retailers Association said the Amazon event was positioning it as a friend and
guide to small sellers, but argued small traders had been harmed by
discriminatory practices of foreign e-commerce firms.
The latest dispute comes as India also considers revising
foreign investment rules for e-commerce which could force companies like Amazon
to rework the relationships it has with big sellers.
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