India’s Move to Deter Digital Monopolies May Hit Amazon, Walmart
- Draft e-commerce rules set code of conduct for retailers
- E-commerce firms asked not to discriminate between sellers
An employee scans a package at the Amazon.com Inc fulfillment center in Hyderabad, India.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergIndia’s draft e-commerce rules to prevent creation of “digital monopolies” and aid local startups may raise costs and stymie expansion plans at companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.
The draft rules seek to prescribe a code of conduct for online retailers and define cross-border flow of user data, according to a note titled Draft Ecommerce Policy, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government --beset by complaints from its traditional vote base of small retailers -- has been framing rules to reduce the dominance of Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart in India’s estimated $1 trillion overall retail market. The latest proposals build on laws that curb the two U.S. companies from offering deep discounts, deter exclusive arrangements with preferred sellers and investing in merchants offering products on their websites.