Jeff Bezos and Mukesh Ambani locked in legal battle over India's biggest retail business

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The outcome of tussle between two of the world's richest men, Reliance's Jeff Bezos and Amazon's Mukesh Ambani, could reshape India's pandemic-hit retail sector and decide if Amazon can blunt Amazon's dominance of the country's nearly billion dollar retail market.

Amazon and Future have been locked in legal battles https: www.reuters.com article from India - Amazon - Com India - Future reliance - idUSKBN 2 AM 0 HN over the Future Group Deal, with U.S. firm accusing the Indian group of breaching pre-existing contracts when it sold its assets to Reliance. Future has denied any wrongdoing.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court said that a decision by a Singapore Arbitrator in October, which put the deal on hold after finding merit in Amazon's objections was valid and applicable in India

Amazon had argued that the order is binding, while Future had argued it was not. Both sides had agreed to use the Singapore Arbitrator in case of disputes when they entered into a $200 million deal in 2019 and used the Singapore Arbitrator again.

Shares of Future Retail fell 6% after order while those in Reliance Industries were down 1.3%.

The following 400 restaurants in around 1,300 cities sell groceries. Its highly upmarket and affordable stores cater to middle-class shoppers, while its budget stores offer products such as imported cheese and fresh guacamole, relatively rare in India's retail landscape.

This makes Future a valuable asset both for Reliance and Amazon.