Xiaomi has requested India’s antitrust commission to recall its findings, which determined that the firm and Walmart’s Flipkart violated competition rules, claiming that it includes business secrets, according to two individuals familiar with the case.
Any return of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) report may postpone the antitrust probe, which began in 2021. In an unusual step in August, the commission recalled an antitrust report against Apple after the business claimed that commercial secrets had been revealed.
According to two individuals familiar with the situation, Xiaomi informed the commission in an application that the Flipkart investigation report contained confidential business data about the smartphone manufacturer that was meant to be redacted when the document was shared with parties in the case.
One of Xiaomi’s worries about the Flipkart report is that it includes model-specific sales data, which is sensitive, according to one of the individuals. Xiaomi, Flipkart and the competition watchdog did not immediately reply to Reuters’ inquiries. The commission does not make investigative reports public, and they are only shared with the parties involved. A recall requires parties to return the report, which is then further reviewed for redactions.
The watchdog discovered that e-commerce behemoths Amazon and Flipkart gave preferential treatment to certain sellers and prioritized specific listings, as well as colluding with companies such as Xiaomi to launch phones exclusively on their websites, according to Reuters, citing August reports on Flipkart and Amazon.
According to Counterpoint Research, South Korea’s Samsung and China’s Xiaomi are two of India’s largest smartphone companies, accounting for almost 36% of the market, followed by China’s Vivo at 19%.
Xiaomi is not worried about the data in the Amazon study, in which investigators also claimed the two businesses cooperated on online sales in violation of antitrust regulations, according to both individuals, who declined to be named because the topic is secret.
According to the first source, the commission should request that parties return the report and destroy any copies so that the watchdog can redact the sensitive material and reshare the findings. The watchdog used a similar approach with its Apple investigation, which discovered that the US giant abused its dominating position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system. The corporation denies wrongdoing.
The commission’s Flipkart investigation stated that the Indian divisions of Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo, and Realme engaged in the practice of exclusive product debuts on Flipkart’s shopping website, which was “against free and fair competition” and “against consumer interest.”