India’s antitrust authorities are planning to expedite an investigation into anti-competitive behaviour at ecommerce giant Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) as the South Asian country turns up the pressure on Big Tech.
According to a Reuters report citing people close to the matter, the Competition Commission of India, which restarted the probe last week following the resolution of a court battle over whether it had sufficient evidence, is speeding up all of its cases involving big technology firms by deploying additional officers and working to stricter deadlines.
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The CCI is assessing whether Amazon promoted select sellers on its platform while also using steep discounts to stifle competition from rivals.
Aside from Amazon, the watchdog is also investigating Flipkart, an Indian online store owned by Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), on allegations of anti-competitive behaviour, while social media giants Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) are battling the government over data privacy policies.
Indian authorities are also reportedly reviewing allegations against search engine giant Google, owned by parent firm Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), that the firm abused the market position of its Android operating system in the Smart TV market.
Shares in Amazon were down 0.1% at US$3,380 in pre-market trading in New York on Tuesday, while Walmart was up 0.3% at US$141.