Zepto's deep discounts drew 400,000 distributors to the antitrust regulator

In March 2025, the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), representing 400,000 distributors supplying 13 million retail shops, filed an antitrust complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Zepto, Zomato's Blinkit, and Swiggy's Instamart. The complaint alleged that the quick-commerce platforms were engaging in below-cost pricing and deep discounting that local brick-and-mortar stores could not match.

The AICPDF compared the online and offline pricing of 25 products, including items from Nestlé and Hindustan Unilever, to demonstrate the gap. The complaint was one of the first major antitrust challenges to India's fast-growing quick-commerce sector, which had expanded rapidly by offering 10-minute delivery of groceries and household goods at heavily discounted prices.

The case was filed at a time when Zepto was preparing for a public listing. The complaint did not immediately halt operations, but it opened a regulatory front that raised questions about the sustainability of the deep-discount model that had driven the sector's growth. The CCI had previously investigated Zomato and Swiggy's food-delivery businesses on similar grounds.