Amazon paid Rs.52 crore as legal fee in FY 2020

With investigations for allegations of bribing Indian officials and many other cases in line, Amazon is reported to have paid Rs.52 crore as legal fee during the financial year ending March 2020. The fees may include litigation charges, consultation fee paid to law firms which have a retainer relationship with companies, land procurements among other things.

Amazon's clarification came after a report said Amazon allegedly paid ₹8,456 crore as legal expenses to maintain its presence in India during 2018-20. The US-headquartered firm also said that overall, under the header of legal and professional expenses, it spent Rs 1,967 crore during the financial year under review.

"Given a misleading representation of a line item from our statutory filings on legal fees in a section of the media, we clarify that the line item is actually termed legal and professional expenses that includes not just the legal costs but also the costs related to other professional services such as outsourcing, tax consultants, customer research, logistic support services, merchant onboarding services, customer service cost, etc," a company spokesperson said. He also added, “For instance, for the year ended March 31,2020, the legal fee was Rs 52 crore, from the total legal and professional expenses of Rs.1,967 crore.”