I ask these not to do a "gotcha", but because this is the first I'm hearing of this and it's fascinating and I'd like to know more.
For example, a smartphone that sells at $400 at offline stores would be available for $350 on Amazon/Flipkart. The cost price of device would be $350 for offline stores. You can also use No Cost financing to purchase the product for monthly payment of $58.33 for 6 months (Totaling $350). Amazon/Flipkart would absorb the interest cost. The losses are obvious as neither Amazon India Inc. (opened 2013) nor Flipkart (opened 2007 and the biggest Indian marketplace bought by Walmart in 2018 for $16 Billion) have made a cent of profit in India. Both Flipkart and Amazon had losses around $500 million for FY17-18, a number expected to go up post Walmart's purchase of Flipkart. Also, Amazon Prime is India is available for $15 a year and includes Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music and 1 Day Free Standard Shipping with no minimum order. In a country where data is basically free (30GB 4G Data with unlimited calls/messages per month for $2), this also adds to pushing people towards Amazon.
On a seperate note, a similar thing is taking place in Indian food delivery market where food delivery companies like Zomato, Swiggy or Ubereats are offering steep continuous discounts of 40-60% forcing delivery restaurants to jump into their ecosystem. The Restaurant association has also approached government with their complaints.
For Example, a Sub that sells for $4 would be delivered for $2 including delivery cost. The delivery companies absorbing rest of the costs.
For Food delivery, the Restaurant Association is discussing the matter with Govt. Agencies. This article would be able to explain laws better : http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/808174/Antitrust+Competition/C...
India has introduced an interesting law that prohibits this practice – a retailer can either be a marketplace with no products of their own, or they can sell their products and not others. They can't be both, as it's seen as creating bad incentives for companies.
I think India may be taking it too far, and I think there are many business that provide value to consumers, but which depend on being able to blend together products at different margins. However I suspect we will see legal battles and/or legislation in Europe soon, as we have with cases like Google allegedly ranking Google services above competing services in Google results (a case with many parallels).
Disclaimer, I work for a "marketplace" that sells its own products alongside those from partners.