According to a report coming in from ET, Flipkart has settled a rather roughly fought, legal dispute against GOQii. GOQii had claimed that the e-commerce website was selling its products at a sharply discounted price.
The two companies have finally come to a settlement and the products are available on the platform again.
The legal spat arose last month after wearable maker GOQii said that it had suffered major losses due to deep discounts offered by the Walmart owned Flipkart on their website. Following these accusations, a legal notice had been sent to Flipkart for the same, wherein the ecommerce platform was asked to withhold selling GOQii products on their platform by the Bombay City Civil and Sessions Court.
As per Reuters, Vishal Gondal, CEO of GOQii has confirmed about their withdrawal of the case occassionsagainst Flipkart. He further stated that he e-commerce retailer’s team worked on a resolution benefitting the brand and the customers.
GOQii signed an agreement with the retail giant to sell two of its devices at a price not below Rs 1,999 and Rs 1,499. But later found that Flipkart had been selling their units for Rs 999 and Rs 699.Customers had cancelled orders and the company received complaints regarding fake products, damaged goods, second-hand products through Flipkart which had an impact on their brand image.
In defense, Flipkart said that it wasn’t responsible for the same since they had no control over the selling prices on the platform. The sellers were the ones responsible for the complaints raised by GOQii.
The legal battle finally came to an end this Friday as the two companies shook hands in a joint statement. Flipkart further added “We have ensured constant engagement with GOQii to resolve any differences”.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy on incidents that impact customer trust. In the last few days, we have ensured constant engagement with GOQii to resolve any differences and we are glad that the brand will be back on Flipkart.” said Adarsh Menon, from Flipkart in a statement.
The judgement could be a landmark in India’s rapidly growing but discount driven ecommerce field. Ecommerce players have been accused of predatory pricing on several occasions. With GOQii standing firm and getting the case resolved, this could set a precedent for similar pricing rows, that continue to erupt.
In India’s wearables market dominated by juggernauts such as China’s Xiaomi and Samsung, GOQii turned out to be the second-biggest player with a 19% market share last year.
