India court dismisses Future's plea to declare arbitration with Amazon illegal

Future Enterprises

04/01/2022 11:15

MUMBAI, Jan 4 (Reuters) - An Indian court on Tuesday
dismissed Future Retail's  FRTL.NS  plea to declare arbitration
proceedings with its warring partner Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O  as
illegal.
    The ruling came after Future urged a New Delhi judge https://reut.rs/3HAbp2E
 that given India's antitrust agency had suspended a 2019 deal
used by Amazon to assert rights over Future, there was no legal
basis for the arbitration between the two sides to continue.
    Justice Amit Bansal at the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday
that the filings were dismissed, without giving any further
details.
    A written order will be released later Tuesday.
    Amazon and Future have been locked in legal battles for
several months. The U.S. company has successfully used the terms
of its $200 million investment in a Future unit in 2019 to block
the Indian retailer's attempt to sell retail assets to rival
Reliance Industries  RELI.NS , alleging breach of certain
contracts.
    Future denies any wrongdoing.
    

 (Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sanjeev
Miglani)
 ((abhirup.roy@thomsonreuters.com; + 91 22 6180 7067; Reuters
Messaging: abhirup.roy.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))