Amazon pulled products from its Indian website, while Walmart said it was “disappointed”, as New Delhi’s new ecommerce rules took effect on Friday, disrupting operations and putting pressure on the retail giants.
Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, the two biggest players in India’s fast-growing ecommerce sector, are being forced to overhaul their business models to comply with new rules introduced in late December, after complaints from traders that the US companies were violating India’s ban on foreign direct investment in “multi-brand retailing”.
Amazon and Flipkart had both urged New Delhi to extend the deadline for complying with the new rules by several months to give them more time to prepare. But on Thursday night the government said it had decided to enforce its original February 1 deadline.