Jeff Bezos, Mukesh Ambani set for long-drawn war over Future Retail

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ As Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) stepped into the e-commerce space with JioMart, speculations ran rife over two of world’s richest individuals up for a confrontation in the market. But RIL’s proposed acquisition of Future Group’s retail business has just pitched both behemoths, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and Mukesh Ambani’s RIL, against each other in a legal battle, which now seems to be heading towards a long-drawn war.

After a Singapore arbitration court ordered a temporary halt in the acquisition process, Future Retail has hinted at challenging the interim order. Indicating that the matter should not have been dealt with by an overseas arbitration court, Future Retail said that all the relevant agreements are governed by Indian law and provisions of the Indian Arbitration Act for all intents and purposes and “this matter raises several fundamental jurisdictional issues which go to the root of the matter”.

According to Future, the order will have to be tested under the provisions of Indian Arbitration Act in an “appropriate” forum. Sources close to Amazon, however, said that the eventuality of moving to Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in case of an issue in the deal was part of the agreement done between Future and Amazon, in which Amazon acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons, a Future group entity.