bengaluru the retailers association of india rai which represents brick mortar retailers like aditya birla group and future group has reached out to the prime ministers office pmo with complaints against ecommerce majors like flipkart and amazon people aware of the development saidrai says the online companies are not maintaining the spirit of the guidelines laid out by the government to create a level playing field with offline firms sources said the charges include that etailers have created closelylinked sellers on their platforms cloudtail and appario in the case of amazon and ws retail and others in the case of flipkartthe association has also said etailers pricing has hurt small retailers though the government came up with rules for ecommerce players last year they havent really practised it in its true spirit its not just the big retailers who are complaining but thousands of small retailers we cant go to court every time and so have approached the highest office in the country a senior member of rai said since the exponential growth of ecommerce in india online and offline retailers have been at loggerheadsoffline retailers allege etailers have an unfair advantage that they use foreign capital to provide steep discounts and work with sellers who have close links with the companies the government had laid down that etailers must not have more than 25 per cent of their overall sales from one vendoraccordingly ecommerce companies have been establishing new sellers to comply with the rules but according to sources in the industry the majority of these sellers are closely working with online marketplaceswhen contacted rai ceo kumar rajagopalan confirmed the development a flipkart spokesperson declined to comment while an amazon spokesperson said in an emailed response amazon has a high bar on compliance we are in compliance of all applicable laws and regulations and will continue to do so