The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of e-commerce giant Amazon in its legal battle against the proposed Rs 24,713-crore merger deal between Future Retail Limited and Reliance Retail.
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.
One of the main questions raised in the case was about the validity and enforceability of a Singapore-based single-judge arbitration panel’s decision to restrain Future Retail Limited from going ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail, under the Indian laws.
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.
