Future-Amazon talks to resolve wrangle fail, ecommerce giant flags retail assets transfer to Reliance

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Talks between Future group and Amazon to resolve their dispute, which is at the heart of a battle for supremacy in the country's retail sector, have not been successful, the Supreme Court was informed today.

Earlier this month, Amazon had proposed to hold talks with all the stakeholders in this dispute in an attempt to arrive at an amicable solution. The Supreme Court had granted parties time to hold informal talks without any mediators.

If the talks bear no fruit, then the court can decide the dispute judicially, the top court had remarked while encouraging the parties to give talks a chance.

Today, the US-ecommerce giant also flagged the development concerning transfer of Future Retail’s shops to Reliance Industries. “All this time we have heard them (Future group) argue that let proceedings go on before the NCLT and nothing will happen. Now the shops have been transferred to Reliance,” senior counsel Gopal Subramanium representing Amazon said.

“We don’t want the message to go out that orders of courts can be flouted,” he added.

This charge was vehemently denied by Future Retail’s counsel Harish Salve. “Rents have not been paid for past two years and landlords have terminated the leases,” he said. “We (Future Retail) are broke… They (Amazon) have brought us to our knees.

“Parties to this dispute have not made any transfer of assets,” Salve stressed.

With the talks between parties remaining inconclusive, the issue of resumption of arbitration proceedings is now the main point of contention before the top court. Meanwhile, Amazon also urged the court to pass interim orders to ensure that Future Retail’s assets are not transferred to Reliance when the dispute remains pending.

The Supreme Court has allowed Amazon to move an application seeking interim relief and will hear the case on the issue of this relief on March 16.

On March 3, the proposal for talks was accepted by Future group too, with a caveat that Amazon does not initiate criminal proceedings against Future group as was reported in the media at the time. Amazon termed the media report “incorrect” which, in effect, meant giving an undertaking to the effect of not initiating criminal action.

Supreme Court is currently hearing Amazon’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s interim order passed in February that stayed the arbitration proceedings between Amazon and Future group before Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) governed tribunal.

The high court’s order was based on the Competition Commission of India’s suspension of its approval for the Amazon-Future group investment deal of 2019. It was the agreement for this deal that provided for dispute resolution through arbitration as per SIAC rules.

Meanwhile, the CCI’s suspension order is under challenge before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). Separately, the Delhi High Court is hearing a batch of cases concerning award passed by the emergency arbitrator in this dispute.

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