Not against e-commerce sites, we want them to operate honestly: Goyal

Piyush Goyal said the Centre only wants fair competition between online and offline companies

This comes a day after Goyal said that billions of dollars of investment in India by e-commerce giants like Amazon were aimed at compensating losses and not supporting the Indian economy.

The commerce minister also said that the growth of e-commerce in India could lead to job losses in traditional retail businesses.

A day after raising concerns about predatory pricing by e-commerce platforms, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday (August 22) clarified that the government is not against online marketplaces but wants them to operate fairly

In a speech at an event in Mumbai, Goyal was quoted as saying that the Centre only wants fair competition between online and offline companies.

“We are very conscious that we want to invite foreign direct investment (FDI), we want to invite technology, we want to have the best of the world and we are not at all against the internet,” Goyal was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

Earlier on Wednesday, Goyal had said that billions of dollars of investment in India by e-commerce giants such as Amazon are aimed at compensating losses rather than supporting the Indian economy.

He added that the “rapid growth” of the e-commerce sector is more a matter of “concern” than pride. He added that the growth could lead to job losses at traditional retailers as e-commerce platforms eat up market share from smaller retailers by offering high-margin products, such as consumer electronics and clothing, at discounted prices.

Goyal also warned of “massive social disruption” caused by the rapid growth of the e-commerce sector, raising concerns that half of India’s market could become part of e-commerce networks within a decade. Given this pace, Goyal stressed that online companies must give themselves a “fair chance” to compete.

However, this is not the first time Amazon has run into trouble in India. In the past, industry body CAIT has repeatedly urged the Centre to investigate the e-commerce giant for alleged anti-competitive tactics.

In 2021, news reports claimed that Amazon had deliberately copied products and manipulated search results to promote its own brands. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) subsequently launched an investigation into the matter, which was eventually dropped in 2022.

Despite this, the Indian e-commerce sector continues to grow thanks to the increasing internet penetration due to affordable smartphones and the internet. As per a report by Inc42, the Indian e-commerce sector is expected to reach a market size of $400 billion by 2030.