Signs of thaw in 18-month old dispute: Amazon, Future ready to talk peace, finally : Rashtra News
#Signs #thaw #18month #dispute #Amazon #Future #ready #talk #peace #finally
After being embroiled in a legal battle for the last 18 months, Future Group and Amazon on Thursday agreed to initiate dialogues to explore the possibility of an out-of-court settlement over the former selling its retail assets to Reliance Retail. Amazon has been objecting to the sale on the ground that it has a first right of refusal over Future Group’s retail assets as per a 2019 deal it struck with a group entity.
The Supreme Court, where lawyers of both the sides agreed to explore out-of-court settlement, has given the parties time till March 15 to see whether they are able to amicably resolve the dispute.
Future Group lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi assured the bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana that during this period there’s no chance of any order being passed on the cases pending before the Delhi High Court, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
The CJI welcomed the move by the parties to engage in talks saying that it is in the interest of all the stakeholders and also offered to fix any date or appoint anyone for the three “giant businesses” to resolve the issue.
“We will simply adjourn the matter… Work out by gentleman’s understanding. It will be better in interest of three business gaints… Amazon has not mentioned mediation, but is willing to talk,” the CJI said, while observing that if the companies fail to find a solution, the option of courts deciding the matter was still open.
The dispute between the Future Group and Amazon has been raging since October 25, 2020, when the Singapore’s Emergency Arbitrator restrained Future Retail from going ahead with its Rs 24,500-crore deal with Reliance Retail.
While the legal battle between the two sides are pending in the NCLT, NCLAT, and Delhi High Court, apart from the Supreme Court, in the last few days, Reliance has taken over 200 stores of Future and plans to take over another 250. These stores would be rebranded as Reliance Stores.
Legally, Reliance Industries cannot go ahead and complete its transaction, but it has taken over the stores as they were sub-leased by it to Future, which has defaulted on rental payments. This has created another legal tussle between the two sides.
On Thursday, senior counsel Gopal Subramanian, appearing for Amazon, while opening his arguments, said, “I am presenting a solution…Throughout we have always been willing to have a dialogue, a conversation. There can be other resolutions to a matter. Is it not a whirlpool?”
When asked to respond by the CJI, Salve also said that “there will be no winners” in this dispute. “I don’t know why we need a court order for a dialogue. We (lawyers) are not stopping them as we are behind the scenes,” he added.
Amazon, which had acquired an indirect minority stake in Future Group in 2019 for Rs 1,400 crore, has alleged that Future’s sale of its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail breached its pre-existing contract, which included a right of the first offer and a non-compete clause. However, in December 2021, the Competition Commission of India put in abeyance the approval given by it to the deal in 2019, thus creating another legal tangle in the fight between the two sides.
Latest Sports News | Latest Business News
( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.financialexpress.com feed.)
Related searches :