7th August 2021, Mumbai:
The Supreme Court of India has stalled the $3.4-billion Reliance-Future deal. The decision is likely to reshape India's pandemic-hit shopping sector and decide if Amazon can blunt Reliance's dominance of the country's nearly trillion-dollar retail market.
Amazon and Future have been locked in legal battles over the Reliance-Future Retail deal, with the US firm accusing the Indian group of violating pre-existing contracts when it sold its assets to Reliance. Future has denied any wrongdoing.
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court said that a decision by a Singapore arbitrator in October—that put the Reliance-Future deal on hold after finding merit in Amazon's objections—was valid and applicable in India. Amazon had argued that the order is binding, while Future had argued it was not. Both sides agreed to use the Singapore arbitrator in case of disputes when they entered into a $200-million deal in 2019.
Around 1,300 of Future's more than 1,700 retail outlets in 400 cities sell groceries. That makes Future a prized asset for both Reliance and Amazon.
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