Amazon.com Inc in India was summoned by Indian Parliamentary Panel who is reviewing the country’s
data privacy .The E-commerce company have refused to appear as the U.S. commerce giant said that
the allegation was a result of a misunderstanding.

Meenakshi Lekhi, head of a parliamentary panel which is reviewing the Indian government’s Personal
Data Protection Bill, had said the officials’ refusal to appear before it on Oct. 28 could lead to “coercive
action” against the company.

Some industry executives say the bill could potentially hurt foreign tech firms and force them to change
how they store data. As part of the panel’s deliberations, it regularly holds discussions with technology
companies.

“Amazon is doing huge business in India and If it doesn’t appear before the committee, coercive action
may be initiated against it,” said Lekhi, without explaining what the action could be.
Asked for comment on Lekhi’s remarks, Amazon said in a statement it would continue to engage with
the panel and there had been a misunderstanding about its position which it will work towards
clarifying.

“The inability of our experts to travel from overseas due to travel restrictions and depose before the JPC
during the ongoing pandemic may have been misconstrued and led to a misunderstanding,” the Amazon
statement said.

The lawmaker added that if a company’s executive does not appear before it when asked, it could
amount to breach of parliamentary privilege which can even attract a jail term.
India has been drafting several regulations for the technology sector which industry executives say could
hurt investment plans of foreign technology giants.

The Indian government is also considering a new policy for the e-commerce sector and to regulate socalled
“non-personal” data.

While introducing the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, in parliament last year, Union minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad said it empowers the government to ask companies - Facebook, Google and others -
for anonymous personal and non-personal data.

But the opposition Congress had concerns regarding the use of such data in some cases, especially where national security is involved. A section of legal experts had also flagged the issue, saying the provision will give the government unaccounted access to personal data of users.

Source- The Reuters