Offline Traders Will Protest Against Flipkart, Amazon Across 1000 Districts; Every MP, MLA Will Be Contacted

Things have heated up between the e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart and local retailers. There have been regular complaints from the latter body concerning the former about deep discounting and predatory pricing, leaving the traders’ body unprofited. The heat has been boiling up with time and finally is about to explode.

What we are trying to say is, just like the large scale #Logout campaign, which swarmed participation and appreciation from mostly all hotel chains around 200 cities in the country, to result into a gigantic effect, a similar stir-up could be witnessed soon in November, conducted by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) body against Amazon and Walmart-acquired Flipkart.

A Piece of Trivia: New FDI Policies for E-Comm Cos

As we have been updating you thoroughly about this whole Amazon-Flipkart vs traders’s bodies scenario, you must be aware that recently, Amazon and Flipkart were inquired about their working techniques, along with a lot of other details. Like always, the CAIT lodged a complaint against these giants, alleging them to have violated FDI policy in in lieu of mega festive sales.

After discounting in the festive season, several complaints were registered against them by the traders body CAIT, which led to the DPIIT demanding Amazon and Flipkart to of top five sellers on their platform, price list of goods of preferred vendors and the kind of support provided to sellers.

Also (a piece of trivia), in order to safeguard the small scale local retailers from the allegedly ‘predatory behaviour’ of foreign-funded retail online joints like Amazon and Flipkart, Union Minister Piyush Goyal provided a detailed discussion on the newly formulated FDI policies.

According to this, the government permits 100% FDI in the marketplace model of e-commerce but not in the inventory-based model. The online firms are also not allowed to influence directly or indirectly prices of goods to be sold on their platforms.

Goyal to Launch Mass Dharnas Against Amazon and Flipkart

Well now that you know everything you need to, about this whole congestion of smooth working, we can proceed further and paint the magnanimous effect of what is to come soon.

It has been reported that the traders’ body CAIT announced on Sunday that it will launch a nation-wide movement to protest against e-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart, alleging that they are violating the FDI norms and destroying the country’s retail business, through predatory pricing, deep discounting, controlling inventory, promoting preferential sellers and influencing prices.

With these companies already traversing on thin ice with Goyal, the picture doesn’t look very bright for them. Consequently, Praveen Khandelwal, the Secretary General for CAIT has declared that the traders’ body is all set to launch a national movement on this issue.

Different Phases and Dates for Dharnas

Khandelwal informed about the different phases of the movement.

• CAIT delegations will submit a memorandum to all MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha across the country on Nov 13.
• On 20 November, a dharna will be organised in about 200 cities in all the states of the country.
• On 25 November, traders will march in 500 districts of the country and a memorandum will be handed over to district collectors.
• On 28 November, protest marches will be organised in above 1000 towns and cities, against the unethical business practices of these companies.
• On 2 December, traders will rally in all the state capitals, with participation of more than 1000 traders, while the CAIT delegation will submit a memorandum to the chief ministers of all states.
• Around Dec 10, a rally of prominent business leaders from all over the country will be held in Delhi.
• In Jan 2020, CAIT will hold a three-day National Traders Convention in the national capital, to be attended by over 10,000 merchants across the country.

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