Future Group’s Kishore Biyani trains guns on an online grocer now, wants it shut

Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani, who has always vouched for same level-playing field for online and offline retailers, once again hit out at online marketplaces and this time it is Bigbasket.

After the Centre, in new guidelines for online marketplace, stated FDI is not allowed in inventory-based e-commerce, Biyani said India’s leading online grocer Bigbasket should be termed as illegal.

Biyani said under the new rules, Bigbaskset should ideally be shut immediately.

"As we speak, Bigbasket's inventory-led model has become totally illegal as per latest government notifications. They don't have any seller and directly sell to the consumers," said Biyani.

READ ALSO: 100% FDI in marketplace could change game plan of Flipkart and Amazon; consumers affected too

Not just Bigbasket, Zivame, Jabong and Myntra also have inventory-led businesses.

Bigbasket mostly operates an inventory-led model and garners about 33% of total sales from its private brands.

"We are looking at our legal position. The view is that there is no cause for concern," Hari Menon, CEO and co-founder, Bigbasket, told TOI.

The Bigbasket raised $210 million, mostly from foreign investors.

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