Amazon Sambhav: Enraged Indian traders to counter Summit with own event titled 'Asambhav'

Thousands of small Indian businesses are set to organise an event this week in protest against the business practices of foreign e-tailers such as Amazon, by taking a dig at the company’s virtual summit with their own event. Starting from April 15, Amazon is organising a virtual summit in the country named "Smbhav” (possible), to showcase opportunities offered by the US firm to allow small businesses to sell online.

To counter the event, trader groups representing 600,000 sellers have decided to launch a summit at the same time, titled "Asmbhav", or "impossible", including an award ceremony to pin the blame on those who have ‘affected’ their businesses.

Indian traders have long alleged that Amazon and Walmart Inc's Flipkart benefit only a few big sellers by engaging in predatory pricing that harms their businesses. A special report published in February also claimed that Amazon has for years given preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its platform and used them to avoid the country's strict foreign investment regulations. However, Amazon has refuted the allegations, saying it "does not give preferential treatment to any seller on its marketplace".

Smbhav Virtual Summit

The Smbhav event, involving 70 speakers, aims to allow small Indian businesses to learn ways to grow their businesses, which is a key growth market for Amazon. The event "puts forth how Amazon and our partners leverage digitisation, technology and our ecosystem to drive infinite possibilities for a Digital India", its website said.

In a statement, trader groups including the All-India Mobile Retailers Association said that Amazon was positioning itself as a friend and guide to small sellers, but was harming traders by its discriminatory practices. The latest dispute comes as the Government mulls on revising foreign investment rules for e-commerce firms which could force companies like Amazon to rework their relationships with big sellers.