Even as Snapdeal’s sale to Flipkart is almost a done deal, there has been no relief to the sellers who have dues pending from Snapdeal. According to a report by the Economic Times, sellers have raised concerns over pending dues and are pushing All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) to seek the help of corporate affairs ministry and the commerce ministry. AIOVA is also threatening to bring a stay on the sale.
AIOVA reached out to MCA secretary Tapan Ray and commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday seeking help for the 500+ sellers who have complained regarding unsettled dues with Snapdeal’s management.
“Most of sellers have stopped selling on Snapdeal. But at least 500 members still have uncleared dues from before, and they are worried if the payments will be made if Snapdeal is sold,“ an AIOVA spokesperson told ET.
AIOVA also asked authorities to hold the sale of the company which is subject to approval by 75% of active sellers on the platform. In writing to the ministries, the example of Askmebazaar was cited which ledt several sellers with unpaid dues after it shut down operations in 2016. They have asked for assurance that the payments will be made either by Snapdeal or the merged entity. They have threatened to file a civil complaint to stop the merger until dues are cleared.
In a statement to ET, Snapdeal said that payments continue to be made as per defined payment cycles, with pre-existing robust mechanisms to address escalations and grievances.
After weeks of negotiation, Snapdeal’s second largest investor Nexus Venture Partners gave the much-required nod for SoftBank to go ahead with the ecommerce major’s sale to Flipkart. It now has to overcome the last hurdle of getting Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Group and Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro who are also investors. Once the deal goes through, Snapdeal founders will get about $25 million each, while Nexus could get close to $100 million and even a stake in the new merged entity. Snapdeal’s third largest investor Kalaari could get about $70-80 million.