In a letter sent to the DOJ on Wednesday, the Committee accused Amazon of misleading Congress regarding its use of seller data as it related to digital market competition. The Committee says Amazon blatantly lied about not using third-party seller data when questioned about its internal practices during a 16-month antitrust investigation targeting Amazon, Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Facebook (now Meta); the Committee repeatedly allowed Amazon opportunities to correct the record or supply evidence supporting its claim of innocence, but each such opportunity was ignored.
“Amazon engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct that suggests it was ‘acting with an improper purpose’ ‘to influence, obstruct, or impede’ the Committee’s investigation and inquiries,” the letter states. “Amazon lied through a senior executive’s sworn testimony that Amazon did not use any of the troves of data it had collected on its third-party sellers to compete with them. But credible investigative reporting showed otherwise.”
(Photo: Syed Ahmad/Unsplash)
Concerns about Amazon’s use of third-party seller data have been circling the digital market for months. The credible investigative reporting the Committee referenced in its letter specifically refers to that conducted by Reuters, The Markup, and The Wall Street Journal, the first of which we touched on in October. At the time, Reuters had examined thousands of internal Amazon documents and found that the company routinely copied third-party sellers’ products and reworked its algorithms to prioritize Amazon’s copies in search results.
After these reports became public, Congress gave Amazon the opportunity to clarify (read: walk back) their previous denials of using seller data, but Amazon doubled down. In addition to refusing to provide requested internal documentation to Congress, Amazon’s associate general counsel Nate Sutton swore under testimony that the company does “not use any seller data to compete with [third parties].”
Should the DOJ comply with the Committee’s request for a criminal investigation, Amazon could be found responsible for criminal obstruction of Congress. “The Committee spent 16 months exercising [its] fundamental truth-seeking function to uncover facts about competitive conditions in digital markets…. Yet throughout this process, Amazon repeatedly endeavored to thwart the Committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon’s business practices,” the Committee’s recommendation reads. “For this, it must be held accountable.”
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