e-commerce company Shopeewhich claims that it is of Singapore origin and is facing controversy over violation of foreign direct investment in the country, has been hit by an FIR filed by a customer in Lucknow for allegedly defrauding him.
In the FIR lodged at Mohanlalganj police station in Lucknow on January 15, complainant Shashank Shekhar Singh said that he had ordered the products online from Shopee on December 10, but what he got was a fake product.
The FIR names Shopee, its parent company Bengaluru-based SPPIN India Pvt Ltd and senior officials of the company.
According to Singh, he ordered three products from Shopee for Rs 840, Rs 399 and Rs 1,299. What they found were not the products shown on the platform, but their fake variants, with the e-commerce platform accusing them of cheating.
In a statement to IANS, the platform said: “Shoppy is a Singapore-based company, not a Chinese company, committed to helping Indian small businesses thrive through its online e-commerce marketplace. The company aims to contribute to India’s mission of digital economy by contributing to the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.”
Last month, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to ban Shopee, claiming it was operating in India against FEMA regulations and the 2020 FDI press note. Is.
Shopee is an e-commerce giant which began its operations in India through an entity named SPPIN India Pvt Ltd which is held by two holding companies, SPPIN I Pvt Ltd and SPPIN II Pvt Ltd, both registered in Singapore , the traders’ body claimed in the letter.
CAIT general secretary Praveen Khandelwal wrote in the letter, “Both these entities are with another parent company SPPIN Limited, registered in Cayman Islands. This complex structure of entities is nothing but an attempt to defraud the Government of India.”
The traders’ body also accused Shopee of adopting a “predatory pricing strategy”, thereby distorting competition in the market.
The Delhi High Court had in November last year sought the Centre’s response on a plea seeking to block e-commerce websites and mobile apps run by SPPIN India Pvt Ltd in the name of Shopee.
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