Traders’ body CAIT to launch nation-wide movement against Amazon, Flipkart

Traders’ body CAIT on Sunday said it will launch a nation-wide movement to protest against e-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart, alleging that they are flouting FDI policy norms and destroying the country’s retail business.

In a statement, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said, “Both Amazon and Flipkart still continue to sell goods on their portal at predatory pricing, deep discounting, controlling inventory, promoting preferential sellers and influencing prices.”

Union Minister Piyush Goyal had last month said the government was looking into alleged predatory pricing by Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal criticised the attitude of Amazon and Flipkart and said the traders’ body is all set to launch a national movement on this issue soon.

The traders’ body has also convened a meeting of its National Governing Council in New Delhi on November 10.

Khandelwal informed about the different phases of the movement and said that on November 13, CAIT delegations will submit a memorandum to all MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha across the country. On November 20, dharna will be organised in about 200 cities in all the states of the country.

On November 25, traders’ march will be organised in 500 districts of the country and a memorandum will be handed over to district collectors.

On November 28, protest marches will be organised in more than one thousand towns and cities of the country against the unethical business practices of these companies.

On December 2, Traders’ rally will be held in all the state capitals in which thousands of traders from across the state will participate and on the same day, the CAIT delegation will submit a memorandum to the chief ministers of all states.

Khandelwal also said that on this issue, a rally of prominent business leaders from all over the country will be held in Delhi around December 10, which will include thousands of traders from all over the country, while in January CAIT will hold a three-day National Traders Convention in the national capital, to be attended by over 10,000 merchants across the country.