Samsung accuses India’s watchdog of unlawfully detaining employees

NEW DELHI, Dec 12 (Reuters): Samsung has accused India's competition watchdog of unlawfully detaining its employees and seizing data in a raid carried out in connection with an antitrust investigation on Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart, a legal filing shows.

Samsung is embroiled in the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) investigation that in August concluded that the South Korean giant and other smartphone companies broke anti-trust laws by colluding with Amazon and Flipkart to exclusively launch products online.

Samsung's Oct. 11 filing in the High Court in northern city of Chandigarh seeks to quash the investigation findings related to conduct of the company, arguing the CCI had illegally seized material from its employees during a 2022 raid at one of Amazon's vendors.

Three Samsung employees were present in the vicinity of the search when the watchdog's officials detained them, seized their phones and copied all the confidential and privileged data, the company said in its 32-page filing, which hasn't been made public.