Fast-delivery companies Zomato, Swiggy, Zepto face India antitrust case over discounts

Aditya Kalra

Thu, Mar 6, 2025, 4:21 AM 3 min read

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian user products distributors person filed an antitrust lawsuit against large fast-delivery businesses of Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto, calling for an probe into alleged heavy discounting practices, ineligible papers show.

India's e-commerce assemblage has faced aggravated scrutiny implicit however products are priced online. An antitrust probe past twelvemonth recovered Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart favour prime sellers and resorted to "predatory pricing", which hurts smaller retailers. The companies person denied the allegations.

Quick commerce, successful which companies present user products wrong 10 minutes from neighbourhood warehouses, is fashionable with customers but has upset smaller retailers arsenic shoppers usage apps to bid everything from beverage to pulses. Bernstein estimates India's speedy commerce assemblage volition scope $35 cardinal successful 2030, from $200 cardinal successful 2021.

The All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), successful a lawsuit filing with the Competition Commission of India, has asked for an probe into galore concern practices of Zomato's Blinkit, Swiggy's instamart, and Zepto, including however discounts are doled out.

"An alarming inclination of predatory pricing and heavy discounting practices by Q-commerce platforms resulted successful unfair pricing models," said the group's filing, which is not nationalist but was reviewed by Reuters.

Zomato and Swiggy did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Zepto declined comment. The CCI did not respond.

The filing could summation headaches for Zomato and Swiggy. A abstracted CCI probe past twelvemonth recovered their nutrient transportation businesses breached contention laws. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Zepto is preparing for an IPO aft raising funds astatine a valuation of $5 cardinal past year.

The watchdog volition reappraisal the lawsuit filing and tin bid its probe portion to look astatine the substance closely. This tin instrumentality respective months and whitethorn necessitate companies to explicate their businesses. It tin disregard the lawsuit if it finds nary merit successful it.

AICPDF has 400,000 distributors arsenic members, who proviso products of brands specified arsenic Nestle, Unilever and Tata to 13 cardinal retail shops crossed India.

A caller Datum Intelligence survey of 3,000 Indian speedy commerce shoppers showed 36% had reduced buying astatine supermarkets and 46% chopped backmost purchases from tiny autarkic stores.

In its filing, AICPDF said section brick-and-mortar stores "cannot match" the speedy commerce giants' discounts. It compared online and offline pricing of 25 products, including of Nestle and Hindustan Unilever.