Karnataka High Court stays copyright FIR against Amazon over discounted book sale

“Legal proceedings cannot be initiated against an intermediary, the company only provides a platform for sellers to display their products on the platform it does not decide the price at which it is sold and there are around 170 million products being available on Amazon,” Chouta said.

Chouta also submitted that Amazon neither published, listed, distributed, nor sold the book and had no role whatsoever in the alleged acts complained of in the FIR. The allegations do not disclose any act constituting copyright infringement under Sections 51 or 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The prosecution has been initiated only against online marketplaces, without identifying or prosecuting the actual third-party sellers alleged to have listed or sold the Impugned Book.

Chouta also informed the court that, soon after the police issued the notice, the listing was taken down at the police’s oral direction on May 7, and the details of the sellers who were selling the book on the platform were provided to the probe agency. Following this, the bench passed the interim order.

The Subramanyapura police station registered an FIR on February 4 on a complaint filed by Bhavana Belagere, daughter of the late author. It was alleged in the complaint that the book is written by journalist Ravi Belagere and published by complainant’s ‘Bhavana Prakashana’.

The book was first published in September 2003, and its 31st printing was in April 2005. The entire copyright of this book belongs to the complainant’s publication, and they have the sole legal right to print, sell and distribute the book.

However, recently, it came to its notice that some individuals and companies, such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, have been illegally selling the book through their apps at a price lower than the original price (currently Rs 350), at Rs 149.

It was claimed that, due to this “illegal act”, the publication has not only suffered financial losses but also had the author’s rights infringed, which constitutes a clear violation of the Copyright Act, 1957, and the Information Technology Act.