Brendan McDermid TPX Images of the Day/Reuters
- A congressional subcommittee responsible for investigating Amazon accused the tech giant of lying.
- The committee is investigating whether Amazon used third-party seller data to develop its products.
- It said Amazon stonewalled requests for evidence and provided “ever-shifting explanations.”
The Congressional Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law sent a letter to the Department of Justice on Wednesday requesting that it investigate “potentially criminal conduct by Amazon.”
The committee has been conducting a long-running antitrust investigation into whether Amazon exploited third-party seller data to give itself an unfair competitive edge. Referring Amazon to the DOJ, and particularly accusing it of lying and obstructing Congress, marks an escalation in tensions between lawmakers and the tech giant.
Amazon employees told The Wall Street Journal in 2020 that the company used third-party data to develop its own first-party products. The committee said in its letter that it uncovered similar evidence from former Amazon employees.
The letter said although Amazon told the committee it never used third-party seller data, it didn’t produce any evidence to contradict the committee and The Journal’s findings.
“Throughout the course of the Committee’s investigation, Amazon attempted to cover up its lie by offering ever-shifting explanations of what it called its ‘Seller Data Protection Policy,'” the letter said.
The letter also pointed to a 2021 report by The Markup, which said Amazon gave its own-brand products preferential placement above third-party products on its marketplace.
“After Amazon was caught in a lie and repeated misrepresentations, it stonewalled the Committee’s efforts to uncover the truth,” the letter said.
Finally, the letter said the committee wrote to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in October 2021 offering the chance to provide evidence exonerating itself.
According to the letter, Amazon brought in a law firm who said the company had conducted multiple internal investigations. None of them found evidence that employees regularly exploited third-party seller data or that the company gave its own products a boost on its marketplace, it said.
“When the Committee asked for the business records that proved these claims, however, Amazon refused to provide them,” the letter said.
In response to the letter, an Amazon spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal: “There’s no factual basis for this, as demonstrated in the huge volume of information we’ve provided over several years of good-faith cooperation with this investigation.”
Amazon did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider. The DOJ did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider outside of usual US working hours.
At a congressional antitrust hearing in 2020 then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said although Amazon has a policy against using “seller-specific data” to help its own-brand businesses, he could not guarantee that policy had not been violated.
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