The supreme court of India upheld an emergency order that Amazon had obtained from the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in October 2020 restraining Future Group from selling its retail business to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL).
The firm founded by Jeff Bezos had alleged a violation of contract when Future Group struck the $3.4 billion (Rs24,713 crore) deal with Reliance Retail last year. Amazon had claimed a conflict as it owns a 49% stake in Future Coupon, a promoter entity of the Kishore Biyani’s retail chain.
The outcome of the tussle involving two of the world’s richest men, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, is seen reshaping India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and deciding if Amazon can blunt Reliance’s dominance of the country’s nearly trillion-dollar retail market.
In February this year, Billionaire Jeff Bezos-led Amazon had filed a legal case against its partner Future Group for selling Rs 24,713 crore retail assets to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail in the Supreme Court.