This company is jointly owned by Amazon and Infosys co-founder Morsi, Catamaran Ventures LLP. The company was due to renew its contract on May 19, 2022, and the two parties said in a joint statement that they have decided not to continue the joint venture after the current cooperation period ends.
It is understood that Prione was founded in 2014, a year after Amazon began selling in India. The company's initial business was to train and introduce new online merchants on Amazon's platform, including local stores, weavers and women-led startups.
However, it is controversial that Prione has established a wholly-owned subsidiary called Cloudtail. The subsidiary also sells merchandise online, thus forming a competition with independent third-party sellers. In the following years, it gradually became one of the dominant suppliers on the Amazon platform. It is reported that two years ago, Cloudtail's product sales accounted for more than one-third of the total sales of India's Amazon platform.
Some smaller merchants claim that they have been treated differently by the platform. Subsequently, India revised its relevant regulations to prohibit platforms such as Amazon from selling products from its affiliated companies, or give preferential treatment to related companies.
It is worth mentioning that the Indian Competition Commission began an investigation into Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart last year after local retailers accused the two giants of abuse of their dominance through substantial discounts, exclusive cooperation and strong support for certain suppliers.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of India rejected a petition from Amazon and Flipkart to stop the investigation and ruled on Monday that the antitrust investigation continued. The ruling puts pressure on Amazon and Morsi to an end their collaboration.
In July this year, Indian Sellers Collective, representing a small merchant group, asked Morsi to end his partnership with Amazon in a letter. The letter was later obtained by the media, accusing Morsi of harming the interests of his country, saying that his cooperation with Amazon violated India's e-commerce law.
Author: Li Yi
