Amazon's Top Watchdog In Congress Says Its Witness 'May Have Lied'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Amazon's witness at a hearing last year "may have lied to Congress" about how the company uses data from its third-party sellers to come up with its private-label products, House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline said Thursday. The assertion comes after a Wall Street Journal investigation found Amazon employees had used non-aggregated or easily identifiable data from sellers on its platform to inform its proprietary product strategy, according to interviews with more than 20 former employees and documents reviewed by the Journal. "At best, Amazon's witness appears to have misrepresented key aspects of Amazon's business practices while omitting important details in response to pointed questioning," Cicilline said in a statement on the report. "At worst, the witness Amazon sent to speak on its behalf may have lied to Congress." Cicilline is leading an investigation into Amazon and its tech peers that will culminate in a report about the health of competition in digital markets. In a January interview with CNBC, Cicilline said it was evident the digital marketplace was "not functioning properly" and said he planned to create bipartisan regulatory proposals to address the issues after releasing the report. The report was initially expected by early April but has been delayed due to the pandemic. The chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said that if true, the Journal's report "raises deep concerns about Amazon's apparent lack of candor before the Committee regarding an issue that is central to our investigation." "Amazon has had opportunities to correct the record on its business practices. It is deeply concerning that, beginning with the hearing last year, they may have misled Congress rather than be fully forthcoming on this matter, notwithstanding our repeated requests in this regard," Nadler said, adding that the committee would "seek clarification from Amazon in short order."

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