Lawmakers wrote to Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), to accuse the company’s top executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of lying or misleading the House judicial committee about business practices of the e-commerce giant.
Q3 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Accusations
The letter points to a recent Reuters investigation, which claimed that Amazon had copied products and manipulated search results in India to further the sale of its own brands.
In the letter, five congressmen tell the company’s CEO that they are considering filing a criminal complaint to the U.S. Justice Department. Amazon has denied the ground of these accusations.
The document asserts that journalistic investigation by Reuters and other media outlets contradict what was said in testimony to the House judicial committee by senior Amazon executives, including former CEO Jeff Bezos.
“We strongly encourage you to make use of this opportunity to correct the record... as we consider whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate,” the letter states.
An spokesperson quoted by BBC said: “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.”
The company also denied the claims via a statement sent to The Independent: “Amazon and its executives did not mislead the committee, and we have denied and attempted to correct the record on the inaccurate media articles in question.”
"We Have To End It"
According to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the cited Reuters report brings to the surface how the company used its power in the tech sector to its own advantage, as she called for the giant company to be terminated.
“These documents demonstrate what we feared about Amazon's monopoly power: that the company is willing and able to rig its platform to benefit its bottom line while scamming small businesses and entrepreneurs. This is one of the many reasons we have to end it,” she wrote.
As reported by The independent, Reuters found that the Amazon India team would have used “sales data and customer reviews” from brands sold on its platform and then “replicate and sell” similar items.
The investigation is backed by internal documents, including one called the “India Private Label Program.”
Amazon is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders’ families.
