Industry body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has raised concerns on the deep discounts or cashbacks provided by the e-commerce festive sales by the companies, which tends to monopolise the retail market, hence reducing the abilities of the small offline retailers. The industry body recomended suspending the e-commerce festival sale along with several other recommendations to provide a level playing field to all the players in India's retail ecosystem. "Exclusive cashbacks are anti-competitive and encourage grey market operations.
A ban would help restore fairness in the market," the industry body stated in its whitepaper. It highlighted, citing the Competition Commission of India (CCI) findings, that the cash burn strategies and collusive partnerships of the e-commerce platform enable them to monopolise markets by forming exclusive alliances with OEMs and banks. "This anti-competitive behaviour forced customers to rely on e-commerce platforms, sidelining the traditional retail sector," the CAIT added in its while paper.
It also raised concerns, adding the issue of lack of price control. "E-commerce platforms, through exclusive agreements and cash burn practices, sold high-value consumer electronics at prices below the rates available to brick-and-mortar retailers, harming the retail sector's viability," the white paper added, citing the CCI observation. The industry body further raised concerns, adding that the e-commerce companies are misusing the foreign direct i.