An Indian retailer group on February 18 approached the government seeking a ban on the Indian operations of e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.

The demand comes at the backdrop of a report by news agency Reuters, in which it was reported that the e-commerce giant was giving preferential treatment to some sellers on its India platform and using them to dodge the country's strict foreign investment regulations.

The Reuters report provided an insight into how Amazon has altered the country's corporate structures every time the government enforced new restrictions aimed at protecting small traders.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents 80 million retail stores in India, stated that “the shocking revelations in the Reuters story are sufficient enough to immediately ban operations of Amazon in India."

The group also asked Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to look into this matter.

The e-commerce giant, however, has criticised the Reuters report calling it factually incorrect, and added that "Amazon remains compliant with Indian laws."