House Judiciary Committee Accuses Jeff Bezos of Misleading Congress, Calls For Him To Testify in Bipartisan Letter

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The House Judiciary Committee accused Amazon of misleading Congress in a bipartisan letter to CEO Jeff Bezos on Friday, which calls for him to testify “in light of [their] ongoing investigation.”

The letter cites an April 23 Wall Street Journal article on Amazon’s practices, which found that the company’s executives had access to the data of third party sellers, and were using them to develop their own label’s products.

“If the reporting in the Wall Street Journal article is accurate, then statements Amazon made to the committee about the company’s business practices appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious,” stated the letter from the lawmakers.

Bezos had previously claimed that using data in this matter was not tolerated and that the findings in the report were a violation of their policy, however, the company’s employees said that this was a common practice.

“In light of our ongoing investigation, recent public reporting, and Amazon’s prior testimony before the Committee, we expect you, as Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, to testify before the Committee,” the letter stated. “It is vital to the Committee, as part of its critical work investigating and understanding competition issues in the digital market, that Amazon respond to these and other critical questions concerning competition issues in digital markets.”

The committee then made it clear that although they hope and expect Bezos to comply, they have the right to force him to testify if needed.