Is e-commerce really hurting competition?

As allegations of anti-competitive practices like vertical restraints by e-commerce firms become more frequent, the CCI's "light touch" decision-making approach for the sector is likely to change

At a time when Jeff Bezos has announced that Amazon would invest $1 billion in “digitising small and medium businesses” in India, the e-commerce sector has come under the spotlight once again: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) conducted a market study on goods, food services and accommodation segments and started investigation against Amazon and Flipkart over alleged anti-competitive practices. With increasing footprint of e-commerce in the consumer market, the recent cases against the two companies have evoked a lot of interest.

As e-commerce becomes a growing and commonly used model for distribution and allegations of anti-competitive practices like vertical