Samsung Accuses India's Antitrust Body Of Unlawful Detention And Data Seizure.
The South Korean mobile brand, Samsung has made a grave accusation against India’s competition watchdog, claiming that its employees were unlawfully detained and their data seized during a raid related to an antitrust investigation.
This investigation involves Amazon, Walmart’s Flipkart and Samsung which are some of the companies being investigated for allegedly breaking anti-trust laws by colluding with these online retailers to exclusively launch products online.
According to Samsung, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) raided one of Amazon’s vendors in 2022 and detained three Samsung employees who were present at the scene.
The CCI officials allegedly seized the employees’ phones and copied all the confidential and privileged data. Samsung has filed a 32-page legal document seeking to quash the investigation findings related to its conduct, arguing that the CCI had illegally seized material from its employees.
The CCI investigation found that Amazon and Flipkart had breached competition laws by favouring select sellers on their platforms.
However, Amazon and Flipkart have denied any wrongdoing. The investigation also found that Samsung and other smartphone companies had colluded with Amazon and Flipkart to exclusively launch products online.
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Samsung has denied these allegations, stating that it was cooperating with the watchdog and providing information only as a third party in the case.
Samsung has obtained an injunction from the High Court that has put on hold the CCI proceedings. However, the court has not yet ruled on Samsung’s requests to return the data seized and not allow the commission to rely on it.
The CCI has challenged Samsung and 22 other parties that have won similar injunctions from high courts across India and has asked the Supreme Court to hear all challenges together.
The inclusion of smartphone makers in the Amazon and Flipkart investigation could increase legal and compliance headaches for companies like Samsung.
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According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung is one of India’s biggest smartphone players, with a 14% market share. Datum Intelligence estimates that 50% of phone sales were online last year which is up from 14.5% in 2013.
In its court filing, Samsung asserted that it was wrongly found to have breached competition laws in collusion with Amazon and Flipkart.
The company argued that the entire search exercise undertaken by the CCI was patently illegal and that any material collected during the raid should not be relied upon and should be promptly returned.
