Merely a week after Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the traders’ body, filed a complaint against e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon over unethical business models to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Akhil Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal, along with local retailers and distributors, have interrupted the functioning of the Flipkart’s Kanpur warehouse, reported Inc42.
The protestors of the group sat outside the warehouse with banners in hand, ultimately shutting the warehouse down for the day.
The complainers alleged that the online marketplaces were practicing unfair means to shrink the business of brick and mortar stores.
The allegations further stated that the smaller stores, which normally constituted 30 per cent of orders of the Flipkart’s festive sales, were completely sidelined by unethical practices like deep discounting during this season.
Furthermore, the protesters have planned to march towards Delhi if their demands are not noticed by the government.
While, Praveen Khandelwal, CAIT’s secretary general, said that the traders have witnessed a decline of around 60 per cent in the mobile sector including other sectors. Whereas, FMCG sales have dropped to 35 per cent and consumer durables and electronics goods by 30 per cent in sales.
Also read: Amazon, Flipkart meets senior officials of DPIIT over complaint by Traders’ Body