Amazon Wins Court Battle Over Ambani’s $3.4 Billion Retail Deal
- Amazon wants to block Reliance from buying an Indian retailer
- Indian court says a Singapore arbitrator’s decision is binding
India's supreme court building in New Delhi.
Photographer: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
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Amazon.com Inc. won a crucial court case to halt billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s planned $3.4 billion purchase of an indebted Indian retailer, a big boost to the global e-commerce giant’s ambitions of dominating the country’s $1 trillion retail market.
On Friday, a two-judge bench of India’s Supreme Court ruled that an emergency order by a Singapore arbitrator last year, which stopped Reliance from proceeding with the deal, is legally binding. Amazon had approached the arbitration court in the city-state, and the parties will now have to wait for the deliberations of that body before a final decision.