Future-Reliance saga has a scary message: If Amazon can't enforce a contract, who can?

This story was first published in The Economic Times. Views are personal.

In case you have not been paying attention, the pandemic has had a transformative impact on the future of Indian retail and e-commerce. Earlier in October, Kishore Biyani admitted that the pandemic had led to his company, ‘Future Group’, losing ₹7000 crores in 3-4 months. Rent and interest on properties like Big Bazaar had not stopped, while sales had taken a direct hit.

While Future Group was struggling with the impact of the pandemic, Reliance was looking to grow. This year, Jio Platforms attracted high-profile investments from amongst others, Facebook and Google. Similarly, Reliance Retail was looking to expand. Between September to October, Reliance Retail raised ₹37,000 crores from over eight investments. Also, there were reports that Amazon had been planning to acquire a significant stake in Reliance Retail for about $20 billion. In late August, Reliance announced the acquisition of Future Group for ₹24,713 crores.