The House Judiciary Committee has requested the Department of Justice to research and a number of the firm’s leaders over a potential legal obstruction of Congress. In their letter, which was seen by , committee members from each side of the aisle say Amazon declined to offer info associated to an investigation. 

The identical representatives — Jerrold Nadler, David Cicilline, Ken Buck, Matt Gaetz and Pramila Jayapal — to offer proof to again up testimony about using third-party vendor knowledge.

Amazon “refused to turn over business documents or communications that would either corroborate its claims or correct the record,” the committee members wrote of their most up-to-date letter. “And it appears to have done so to conceal the truth about its use of third-party sellers’ data to advantage its private-label business and its preferencing of private-label products in search results — subjects of the Committee’s investigation.”

In 2020, Jeff Bezos, then the corporate’s CEO, Amazon would not enable employees to make use of knowledge from particular person sellers to , however could not assure “that policy has never been violated.” Executives additionally mentioned in testimony that the corporate would not use vendor knowledge to repeat merchandise after which promote its variations in search outcomes, .

The committee an antitrust investigation into Amazon, Apple, Meta and Alphabet in 2019. Of the 4, the members have solely accused Amazon of illegally obstructing the method.

“Amazon repeatedly endeavored to thwart the Committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon’s business practices,” they wrote. “For this, it must be held accountable.” They knowledgeable the DOJ of “potentially criminal conduct by Amazon and certain of its executives.”

“Amazon’s misconduct demonstrates the need for both accountability and change,” Antitrust Subcommittee chair Cicilline . “The DOJ needs to determine whether Amazon’s conduct constitutes chargeable obstruction of Congress.”

Engadget has contacted Amazon for remark.