On Tuesday, Amazon’s two-year quest to stop a $3.4 billion agreement between its estranged partner Future Group and Reliance Retail took a new turn when tens of millions of Indians awoke to find the American e-commerce giant expressing its frustrations in various newspapers.
Amazon has accused Future Group (India’s second-largest retailer) and Reliance Industries (India’s most valuable company by market capitalization) of engaging in deceptive practises, alleging that the Indian companies failed to comply with court orders and attempted to “remove the substratum of the dispute” recently.
While Amazon and Future continue their legal battle, Reliance began taking over dozens of Future’s stores last month after brokering deals with landowners, a move that caught Amazon off guard and outwitted the American company, which has invested over $6.5 billion in its India business. Future, which is cash-strapped, stated in a filing earlier this month that it was unable to pay rent at a number of locations.
Future Retail and its partners have persistently behaved in breach of the emergency arbitrator’s ruling, which was reaffirmed by the Arbital Tribunal, Amazon stated in a “Public Notice” ad released Tuesday.
“It has now been shown that FRL and its promoters have been striving to eliminate the dispute’s substratum by ostensibly transferring and alienating FRL’s retail assets.”
“Any attempt by FRL, and its prompters, to transfer/dispose/alienate any of its retail assets is in violation of binding orders of the Arbitral Tribunal, which operate as orders of an Indian Court, and any party assisting or cooperating in such fraudulent and contumacious actions will be liable for civil and criminal consequences under law,” the ad continues.
