> Last month, India tightened rules that will disallow foreign-owned online retailers from selling products via companies in which they own equity, and forbid them from pushing merchants to sell exclusively through their platforms
Amazon can't directly sell products in India due to FDI (foreign direct investment) laws. These are laws that restrict foreign companies on multi-brand retail in the country.
That's what India basically regulated with Amazon. i.e. a company can't sell proudts on their open-market platform from companies you have a stake in (or your own generics presumably?).
Also the ban is for one year. Amazon’s plan is to suspend selling while the public opinion is against it. Once this issue is forgotten, they will begin selling Rekognition again to the government .
Amazon has actually been requiring vendors to supply this info for a few years now. They have it in their database, but refuse to expose it. The Indian government forced them to, mostly because they are in a cold war with China and want to wean themselves off from Chinese goods.
Yeah they were violating the regulations with Cloudtail & Appario and with growing pressure they've no choice now.
But still there are loads of sellers claiming to be an 'Amazon Brand'[1] on their listing. If Amazon does have something to do with them, Then again it's a violation of the regulations.
Then, What about 'Amazon Basics' products[2]? I'm sure Amazon manufactures them.
The whole thing is messy and keeps changing according to the 'Mega Billionaires' fight to hold their position, But if this results in temporary consumer choice until one of them wins and we have to pledge our souls then it's fine with me.
I think this is a pretty big deal and has been for at least a few years, yet there have been no repercussions for Amazon yet. It feels like it should be illegal to enable this kind of thing.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/05/amazon-how-india-ecommerce-l...
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