House lawmakers asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate online retail store Amazon on Wednesday. They claimed that Amazon executives lied under oath when they were testifying in Congress about the company’s competition.
The House Judiciary Committee sent a 24-page letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, which included the request for the department to investigate Amazon for obstructing Congress and lying under oath.
“Amazon engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct that appeared designed to influence, obstruct, or impede the committee’s 16-month investigation into competition in digital markets,” the committee said in a statement.
In 2020, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos testified in front of Congress, explaining that the company did not allow its employees to use the data on individual sellers to help its own business.
Previously, the retail giant’s employees accused the company of exploiting proprietary data from individual sellers to launch competing products and manipulating search results to increase sales. Along with exploitation, the company was also accused of manufacturing “knock-offs” of products it sells on the website and selling them as Amazon products.
“Amazon attempted to clean up the inaccurate testimony through ever-shifting explanations of its internal policies and denials of the investigative reports,” said the committee. “It described the reports as based on ‘key misunderstandings and speculation’ that led to ‘inaccurate conclusions.’ The Committee uncovered evidence from former Amazon employees, and former and current sellers, that corroborated the reports’ claim.”
Recently, a plethora of internal documents have revealed that Amazon did the exact opposite of what Jeff Bezos’ testimony stated.
According to the documents, Amazon’s private brands team in India had secretly exploited internal data from a popular shirt brand in India, John Miller, owned by the country’s “retail king” Kishore Biyani. Amazon uses the exact measurement of John Miller shorts down to the neck circumference and sleeve length.
The documents also show that employees at Amazon were studying proprietary data, including detailed information about customer returns for other brands on Amazon. The goal was to identify benchmark products and then “replicate them” for Amazon’s own brand.
“The Committee extended multiple opportunities for Amazon to clarify these misconceptions, yet executives continued to thwart our efforts to uncover the truth about their business practices,” the members stated. “Amazon and its executives must be held accountable for this behavior.”
Amazon continues to deny the accusations.
“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,” a spokesperson told The Hill a statement.