Less than a month old legal dispute between a Mumbai-based company GOQii and e-commerce platform Flipkart has finally come to rest after the former issued a notice to Bengaluru-based e-tailer giant for providing heavy discounts on its product.
In a joint statement on Friday, the companies said the dispute has been resolved and GOQii health devices would again be available on Flipkart, cited Inc42.
The dispute between the two companies came into effect when last month, GOQii founder Vishal Gondal had alleged that the company had an agreement with Flipkart for the sale of its fitness bands, but the e-tailer allegedly began offering deep discounts on the products since the first week of May at prices lower than the cost price which violated their agreement.
GOQii is a California-based fitness technology venture in Menlo Park that offers a wearable fitness band paired with remote personalized coaching. It was founded by Vishal Gondal in 2013.
Whereas, Flipkart, owned by Walmart, is based out of Bengaluru, founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal together in 2007. The company initially focused on book sales, before expanding into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, and lifestyle products.
“Since we also supply to corporates, some orders got cancelled. Trade partners like Croma and distributors are unhappy. We have never faced a situation like this in Amazon,” Gondal, founder and CEO, GOQii, said.
In response to the dispute, Adarsh Menon, head of private label business at Flipkart said, “Flipkart is a customer-focused marketplace that works closely with brands & seller partners to ensure that all policies are aligned to industry standards & are in compliance with all applicable Indian laws. We’ve a zero-tolerance policy on incidents that impact customer trust.”
Towards the end of last month, a Mumbai City Civil Court passed an interim order to stop Flipkart and its sellers from selling GOQii’s wearable devices.
Furthermore, GOQii compete with the likes of Chinese phone maker Xiaomi and the former’s market against Xiaomi is 19 per cent.