Reuters Special Report: Amazon documents reveal company’s secret strategy to dodge Indian regulators

In a special report, Reuters revealed that Amazon has for years given preferential treatment to a small group of sellers on its India platform, publicly misrepresented its ties with the sellers and used them to circumvent increasingly tough foreign investment rules. The revelations are contained in hundreds of internal Amazon documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents, dated between 2012 and 2019, provide an inside look at the cat-and-mouse game Amazon has played with India’s government, adjusting its corporate structures each time the government imposed new restrictions aimed at protecting small traders. With Amazon facing increasing scrutiny by Indian regulators, news of the strategy detailed in the documents could deepen the risks for the company in one of its key growth markets.