Smartphone Makers in India Facing Antitrust Scrutiny

TapTechNews September 15th news, Reuters disclosed a regulatory report yesterday (September 14th), showing that many smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung and Xiaomi are facing antitrust reviews in India.

According to the disclosed report, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) detailedly exposed the cartel (TapTechNews note: Cartel, also known as monopoly alliance, monopoly interest group, enterprise coalition, trade association, industry federation, etc.), involving smartphone giants such as Samsung and Xiaomi, as well as e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart.

The report pointed out that in the Indian market, smartphone manufacturers only release products on these two platforms, which violates the competition law.

The detailed report pointed out that Amazon and Flipkart give preferential treatment to a few selected sellers, prioritize the display of specific product listings, and provide significant discounts to suppress small competitors and harm the interests of small brick-and-mortar retailers.

The investigation report shows that companies such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, realme, vivo, and OnePlus have reached exclusive mobile phone release joint agreements with Amazon and Flipkart.

This anti-competitive behavior not only distorts the market by limiting the supply of these mobile phones on specific platforms, but also puts other sellers at a disadvantage.

For a long time, Indian smartphone retailers have been complaining that they cannot provide new models like online platforms, resulting in customers bypassing physical stores to buy.