Members of Congress have accused executives of deceptive or mendacity to an antitrust committee about its enterprise practices, following that the corporate makes use of third-party vendor knowledge to repeat merchandise and promotes these variations in search outcomes. The representatives, all members of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, are contemplating whether or not to ask the Department of Justice to undertake a legal investigation.

In the letter to chief govt Andy Jassy, Reps. David Cicilline, Ken Buck, Pramila Jayapal, Jerrold Nadler and Matt Gaetz requested Amazon to offer “exculpatory proof” to again up testimony from executives )(together with former CEO Jeff Bezos) to the subcommittee in 2019 and 2020, based on . Bezos that the corporate does not permit workers to make use of knowledge from particular person sellers to bolster its personal product traces, although “could not assure” that the corporate hasn’t misused such knowledge. The firm’s affiliate basic counsel, Nate Sutton, mentioned in a 2019 testimony that Amazon does not “use individual seller data directly to compete” with third-party sellers.

An investigation printed  final week advised Amazon India “ran a systematic campaign” of copying different corporations’ merchandise and manipulating search outcomes to advertise them. additionally reported that Amazon locations its personal merchandise above rivals’ items in search outcomes, together with ones with greater buyer scores. The representatives mentioned the reporting straight contradicts sworn testimony from Bezos, from whom and different executives.

“We strongly encourage you to make use of this opportunity to correct the record and provide the Committee with sworn, truthful, and accurate responses to this request as we consider whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate,” the lawmakers wrote within the letter. “At best, this reporting confirms that Amazon’s representatives misled the Committee. At worst, it demonstrates that they may have lied to Congress in possible violation of federal criminal law.”

The House Judiciary Committee has been wanting into this concern as a part of a broader investigation of competitors in digital markets. The representatives gave Jassy till November 1st to answer the letter. “We’re giving Amazon one last chance to come clean about how they abuse other seller’s data and unfairly advantage their own products,” subcommittee chair Cicilline . “We cannot continue to allow Big Tech to destroy small businesses.” 

An Amazon spokesperson offered the next assertion to Engadget:

Amazon and its executives didn’t mislead the committee, and now we have denied and sought to appropriate the file on the incorrect media articles in query. As now we have beforehand acknowledged, now we have an inside coverage, which fits past that of another retailer’s coverage that we’re conscious of, that prohibits the usage of particular person vendor knowledge to develop Amazon personal label merchandise. We examine any allegations that this coverage might have been violated and take applicable motion. In addition, we design our search expertise to function the objects prospects will need to buy, no matter whether or not they’re provided by Amazon or one in every of our promoting companions.