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British antitrust regulators have started investigating Amazon's purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot, adding further scrutiny to the $1.7 billion deal. The Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday that it's considering whether the deal will result in a substantial lessening of competition within the United Kingdom. In an initial step, the U.K. watchdog invited comments on the deal from any interested party. The acquisition is already facing a review in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission amid worries about Amazon's growing market power. Consumer groups had voiced concerns after the deal was announced last year that it would further the e-commerce giant's dominance in the smart home market. Amazon said it's working cooperatively with the relevant regulators in their review of the merger. Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, which makes the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, said it continues to work cooperatively with both the U.S. FTC and other regulatory agencie
Amazon India and the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on Wednesday announced they signed a pact to boost India's creative economy. As part of the letter of engagement (LoE), Amazon and the ministry will help build pathways to promote creative talent in India, create capacity across eminent film and TV institutes, and globally showcase Made in India creative content. The LoE was signed at The National Media Centre here in presence of I&B Minister Anurag Thakur; Chetan Krishnaswamy, Vice President, Public Policy at Amazon India; and Gaurav Gandhi, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Prime Video. According to a press release issued by the company, Prime Video and miniTV will both work towards providing internships, and scholarships to students at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTII). To further the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' initiative, content from National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), national
E-commerce major Amazon removed six million counterfeit items globally from the supply chain in 2022, the company said in a report on Tuesday. The e-commerce firm said that it stopped over 800,000 attempts to create new selling accounts in 2022, preventing bad actors from publishing a single product for sale. The figure has come down from 2.5 million attempts in 2021, and six million attempts in 2020. "The strategic combination of industry-leading technology and experts are successfully stopping bad actors and making an impact beyond Amazon's marketplaces and stores identifying, seizing, and appropriately disposing of over six million counterfeit products in 2022, preventing them from reaching customers and being resold elsewhere in the global supply chain," the report said. The report said that Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit sued or referred for investigation over 1,300 criminals in the US, UK, EU, and China in 2022.
Competition Commission is conducting inquiries against Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy, BookMyShow, Apple, WhatsApp, Facebook (Meta) and Google for alleged anti-competitive practices, the government said on Tuesday. To a query in the Rajya Sabha on whether the government is aware of the fact that anti-competitive practices are indulged by big tech companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Google, Meta, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Google etc in the country, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied in the affirmative. In a written reply, the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister said the Competition Commission of India (CCI) after conducting inquiries in three different cases, passed orders in the matter related to Google on January 31, 2018, October 20, 2022, and October 25, 2022. In the matter related to MakeMyTrip-Go and OYO, the order was passed on October 19, 2022. "Appeals have been filed against these orders passed by CCI. Inquiries against Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, Swiggy