By Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – China’s Xiaomi has asked India’s antitrust body to recall its report that found the company and Walmart’s Flipkart breached competition laws, arguing it contains commercial secrets, two people familiar with the matter said.
Any recall of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) report could delay its antitrust investigation, which began in 2021. In a rare move in August, the commission recalled an antitrust report on Apple after the company similarly complained commercial secrets were disclosed.
Xiaomi has told the commission in an application the investigation report on Flipkart contains sensitive business data on the smartphone company which was supposed to be redacted when the document was shared with parties in the case, said the two sources familiar with the matter.
One of Xiaomi’s concerns with the Flipkart report is that it contains its model-wise sales which is sensitive information, one of the sources said.
Xiaomi, Flipkart and the competition watchdog did not immediately respond to Reuters queries.
The commission does not make investigation reports public and they are only shared with parties to the case. A recall requires parties to return the report which then undergoes further review for redactions.
The watchdog has found that e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart gave preference to select sellers and prioritised certain listings, and also colluded with companies like Xiaomi to launch phones exclusively on their websites, Reuters reported this month citing the August reports on Flipkart and Amazon.
Counterpoint Research data shows that South Korea’s Samsung and China’s Xiaomi are two of India’s biggest smartphone players, together holding an almost 36% market share, with China’s Vivo on 19%.
Xiaomi is not concerned with data in the report made on Amazon, in which the investigators also said the two companies colluded on online sales in breach of antitrust laws, said both the sources, who declined to be named as the matter is confidential.
It wants the commission to ask parties to return the report and destroy any copies, allowing the watchdog to further redact the sensitive information and reshare the reports, said the first source.
The watchdog took a similar step with its Apple report, which found the U.S. company exploited its dominant position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system. The company denies wrongdoing.
The commission’s Flipkart report said the Indian units of Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo and Realme indulged in the practice of exclusive product launches on Flipkart’s shopping website, saying this was “against free and fair competition” and “against the interest of consumers”.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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