Xiaomi urges India's antitrust body to retract report on Flipkart citing sensitive data disclosure
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Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has requested that India’s antitrust regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), recall its report alleging the company and Walmart-owned Flipkart violated competition laws.
According to sources, Xiaomi claims the report contains sensitive commercial information that was improperly disclosed.
The CCI’s investigation into Xiaomi and Flipkart began in 2021, and the recall request could further delay the probe. In August, a similar situation occurred when the CCI recalled a report on Apple after the company raised concerns over the disclosure of its commercial secrets.
Xiaomi's application to the CCI highlights that the investigation report, which includes sensitive business data, such as model-specific sales figures, was shared without necessary redactions. This breach of confidentiality is a significant concern for Xiaomi, though it has not raised similar issues with the CCI's separate report on Amazon, which also found collusion with Xiaomi in online sales.
Neither Xiaomi, Flipkart, nor the CCI have responded to media inquiries on the matter.
The antitrust investigation has uncovered that major e-commerce platforms, including Flipkart and Amazon, gave preferential treatment to select sellers and collaborated with smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi to launch products exclusively on their platforms.
Such practices, according to the CCI report, are detrimental to fair competition and consumer interests.
Xiaomi has requested that the CCI instruct involved parties to return the report and destroy any copies. This would allow the regulator to re-evaluate and redact sensitive information before sharing it again.
A similar redaction process was undertaken with the Apple report, where the U.S. company was accused of exploiting its dominant position in the iOS app store market, a charge it denies.
The CCI’s findings also state that various smartphone brands, including Xiaomi, Samsung, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo, and Realme, engaged in exclusive product launches on Flipkart, a practice deemed anti-competitive.