Five members of the US House Judiciary committee wrote to Amazon’s CEO on Sunday, accusing the company’s executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to Congress about Amazon’s business practices.
The letter also pointed out that the committee is considering “whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate.” This letter was written after being sent to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last week. The survey revealed that the company has carried out systematic activities to copy products and manipulate search results in India to promote its Private label sales-Amazon denies the practice of participating. In July, a long-time Amazon executive succeeded Bezos.
The letter stated that the “credible reports” in recent articles by Reuters and several other news media “directly contradict the sworn testimony and statements of Amazon executives-including former CEO Jeffrey Bezos . “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 letter said. In response, an Amazon spokesperson issued a statement saying:
“Amazon and its executives did not mislead the committee, and we have denied and sought to correct the record on the inaccurate media articles in question.”
It added: “As we have previously stated, we have an internal policy, which goes beyond that of any other retailer’s policy that we’re aware of, that prohibits the use of individual seller data to develop Amazon private label products. We investigate any allegations that this policy may have been violated and take appropriate action.” Since 2019, the House Judiciary Committee has been investigating competition in the digital marketplace, including how Amazon uses proprietary seller data on its platform and whether the company unfairly favors its products.
Bezos stated in a sworn testimony to the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Judicial Committee last year that the company prohibits its employees from using individual seller data to benefit its own-brand product line. At another hearing in 2019, Amazon’s deputy general counsel Nate Sutton testified that the company will not use such data to create its own branded products or change its search results to benefit them. In a congressional hearing in 2019, when asked whether Amazon will change its algorithm to direct consumers to its own products, Sutton replied: The algorithms are optimized to predict what customers want to buy regardless of the seller.”
The letter from the legislator provided Jassy with a “last opportunity” to provide evidence to corroborate the company’s previous testimonies and statements.
News Source : Gadgets 360
