US congressmen ask Amazon to clarify whether Bezos lied under oath

Five congressmen from USA, both Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to the CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, ​​giving him one “last chance” to clarify whether his predecessor in office and founder of the company, Jeff Bezos, lied under oath.

In their letter, the congressmen point to apparent contradictions between the testimony given by several senior executives and by Bezos himself in his statements before the United States House of Representatives and the information published in recent months by various media such as the Wall Street Journal .

Bezos and Amazon executives were called to testify before the Lower House Antitrust Subcommittee on several occasions in 2019 and 2020, always denying that the company was involved in anti-competitive practices.

According to the congressmen’s letter, the information that appeared in the press directly contradicts the testimony that Bezos and the rest of the executives gave under oath.

“At best, these posts confirm that Amazon representatives purposely misled the committee. At worst, they show that Congress was lied to in what could be a violation of federal criminal law, ”they noted in the letter.

Faced with this situation, the congressmen say they are giving the company a “last chance” to present “exculpatory evidence” to corroborate the testimony given by Bezos and the executives, and threaten to refer the matter to the Department of Justice so that a investigation criminal.

The alleged practices about which the executives would have misled or lied to Congress are the use of third-party data (that is, sellers who have their products on Amazon, but do not work for the company) to create competitors that are owned by Amazon. .

Thus, for example, Amazon would be using information from third parties about which products are liked more or less, which audience they are most interested in, what is the best selling price, which functions are the most valued by consumers, etc. to create and launch their own products that would later compete with the originals.

Bezos and company executives insisted on several occasions before Congress that this is not something that Amazon does, but journalistic reports suggest that it would be a common practice in the company.

After knowing the sending of the letter with the ultimatum to the company, it issued a statement in which it denied that its executives had lied to Congress and indicated that its internal policy prohibits using the data of third parties to develop its own products.

Bezos left the position of CEO of the company he founded in 1994 last July, giving way to Jassy, ​​although he remains the firm’s CEO.

The congressmen who signed the letter sent to Amazon are David Cicilline, Pramila Jayapal and Jerrold Nadler (Democrats) and Ken Buck and Matt Gaetz (Republicans).