Amazon case: SIAC rejects future plea


As a setback for Future Group, the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) on Tuesday rejected a request to end the lawsuit initiated by US e-commerce major Amazon. SIAC said it will continue the case against Future Group’s move to sell its retail assets to Reliance Industries (RIL) for Rs 24,713 crore.

The court rejected the applications for termination and said that the continuation of the procedure has not become unnecessary. According to SIAC, the National Company Law Tribunal, which deals with bankruptcy petitions filed by lenders, imposes another moratorium, and therefore there was “no legal or substantive barrier that prevented the continuation of the procedure”. Such a moratorium would also be operative against Future Retail and not majority respondents. Therefore, any moratorium will not prevent the majority respondents from participating in these cases, it states. Furthermore, where the court continues with the arbitration proceedings, the validity of the previous emergency arbitration will continue to be valid.

By 2020, Future Group had filed an application citing a previous CCI order that canceled an agreement between Future Retail and Amazon. When the agreement was annulled and Amazon’s objections were declared illegal by the CCI, there was no reason to proceed with the arbitration, Future Group had said in its petition to SIAC. In April, the Supreme Court had allowed arbitration proceedings for SIAC between Amazon and FRL.

In 2020, Future Group had entered into an agreement with Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of RIL, to sell its retail, logistics and warehousing companies for Rs 24,713 crore. It was later canceled after Future Group failed to secure shareholder and lender approval.



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