India's Future Retail must take part in Amazon dispute arbitration, Singapore panel says (updated)

Future Enterprises

20/10/2021 14:40

(Adds details)
    By Aditya Kalra
    NEW DELHI, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Future Retail must take part
in arbitration over a commercial dispute with Amazon.com Inc
 AMZN.O , a Singapore arbitration panel ruled on Wednesday,
rejecting the Indian retailer's bid to avoid the process. 
    Amazon is trying to block https://www.reuters.com/article/amazon-india-future-reliance-idUSKBN2871AM
 Future's $3.4 billion sale of its retail assets to Indian
market leader Reliance Industries, accusing it of breaking
contracts. Future denies any wrongdoing.
    After the Singapore arbitrator put the deal on hold last
year in an interim decision, Future argued it should be excluded
from arbitration because Amazon had initiated it incorrectly
under a contract it signed with another Future group company. 
    In an order on Wednesday, which is not public but has been
reviewed by Reuters, the panel disagreed with Future. It said
the three agreements at the heart of the Future-Amazon dispute
must be read together, and not separately, as Future argued.
    The three agreements were of "composite nature", "wide and
comprehensive enough" and the tribunal "has jurisdiction over
FRL (Future Retail) in this Arbitration," said the 69-page
order.
    Future and Amazon did not immediately respond to requests
for comment. 
    The main arbitration proceedings will now begin in due
course, people familiar with the matter said. 
    The dispute started after Future, India's second-largest
retailer with over 1,700 stores, entered into a deal last year
to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and certain other
businesses to Reliance, after COVID-19 hit its operations hard.
    Amazon had its sights on ultimately owning some of Future's
retail assets itself. It has argued a 2019 deal it had with a
Future unit contained clauses prohibiting the Indian group from
selling its retail assets to anyone on a "restricted persons"
list that included Reliance.
    Amazon brought proceedings against Future before a Singapore
arbitration panel, and the dispute is also being fought at
various Indian legal forums.
    The outcome of the tussle involving two of the world’s
richest men, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani,
could reshape India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and help
determine whether Amazon can blunt Reliance's dominance of
India's almost one trillion-dollar retail market.

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Exclusive: India watchdog accuses Amazon of concealing facts in
Future deal    https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-india-watchdog-accuses-amazon-concealing-facts-deal-future-group-unit-2021-07-22/
Analysis: Battle of the billionaires - Bezos, Ambani gun for
India retail supremacy    https://reut.rs/3E4kAXD
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 (Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi
Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Mark Potter)
 ((aditya.kalra@tr.com; +91-11-49548021; Twitter @adityakalra;))