In a major setback to the Future Group, the Delhi High Court has suspended the ongoing arbitration proceedings with Amazon by the companies of the Future Group before the Singapore International Arbitration Center. The petitions for quashing have been dismissed.
Kishore Biyani’s Future Group had approached the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Singapore Tribunal to hear the termination application before the scheduled hearing in the arbitration case.
Future Group’s case hinged on a December 2021 order of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a 2019 investment deal between Future Coupons Pvt Ltd, the promoter firm of the group’s publicly listed company Future Retail Ltd, and Amazon. Withheld his approval.
The matter was heard for about three hours on January 3, citing the expediency in this matter. The court reserved its order to be given immediately before the dates fixed by the Singapore International Arbitration Center for its meeting to conduct arbitration proceedings in the matter.
The tribunal is set to meet between January 5 and 7 to proceed with hearing the arbitration case to determine the amount of damages that Future Group will be liable to pay to Amazon.
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Future Group had filed the petition in the High Court after the Singapore Tribunal was unable to decide on its application for disposal before the scheduled hearing on the main matter. Future Group’s counsel filed the case calling it “contravention of Indian law” and “contravention of CCI order” to quash the arbitration.
Let us tell you that the legal battle between Amazon and Future started back in 2020 when Future Retail announced its asset sale deal with Reliance Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. called for arbitration. Amazon claimed that its deal with Future Coupons has barred Future Retail from entering into agreements with certain entities, including the Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Whereas, Future Retail claimed that it was not bound by the deal between Amazon and the promoter firm of Future Retail.
(Disclaimer: Network 18 Media & Investment Ltd. is owned by Independent Media Trust. Its beneficiary company is Reliance Industries.)
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