Piyush Goyal attacks Amazon over predatory pricing

NEW DELHI: Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Wednesday made no bones about his ‘disapproval’ of the predatory pricing practices adopted by US e-tailer Amazon.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi on the impact of e-commerce in India, Piyush Goyal stated that Amazon’s investment of a billion dollars in India is not a cause for celebration, as it is merely compensating for the losses incurred due to predatory pricing.

“When Amazon says they are going to invest a billion dollars in India, and we all celebrate, we forget the underlying story that the billion dollar is not coming in for any great service or any great investment to support the Indian economy. They made a billion-dollar loss in their balance sheet that year. They have to fill in that loss,” the Minister of Commerce and Industry said. He said that if you (Amazon) make Rs 6,000 crore losses in a year, it smells of predatory pricing.

It should be noted that Amazon Seller Services, the marketplace business of Amazon India, reported a 33% increase in net losses in FY23 to Rs 4,854 crore, up from Rs 3,649 crore the previous year.