Amazon, Flipkart, discovered that he has violated Indian quality control rules during warehouse raids

Amazon and Walmart Flipkart retail giants violated India's quality control rules by storing products that did not have the required standards certificate, said the main product certification agency managed by the Government of India on Thursday.

Raids in Almacenes operated by both companies, held on Wednesday by the Office of Indian standards in the Tiruvallur district of the state of Tamil Nadu de Tamil Nadu, in southern India, discovered that companies had violated the rules storing, selling and exhibiting products that did not carry the standard BIS brand, said a government statement.

A Amazon Indian spokesman said the company was committed to several interested parties, including regulators, while a Flipkart spokesman said he worked with sellers to raise awareness and comply with all applicable laws.

“The platform has several processes to review the lists that sellers perform in the market, and also perform regular audits to guarantee compliance,” said a Flipkart spokesman in response to a request for comments.

The raids are the last headache for the two companies, leading the actors in the Electronic Market of India, which the Bain consulting firm estimated $ 57 billion, $ 60 billion in 2023 and established a value of $ 160 billion in the value for 2028.

In the Amazon warehouse, 3,376 products were seized without the standard brand, including flasks, isolated food containers, toys and ceiling fan, according to the statement, while officials seized diapers, pans and stainless steel water bottles of the Flipkart warehouse.

Last September, an antitrust investigation found that both companies violated local competence laws by giving preference to selected sellers on their purchasing websites.

A few weeks later, in November, the researchers raided a series of Amazon and Flipkart vendors after a 2021 reuters investigation based on internal Amazon documents that showed that the company had for years a preferential treatment to small groups of vendors, and used them to avoid Indian laws.