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Amazon lied about using seller data, lawmakers say, urging DOJ investigation:
Amazon lied to Congress about its use of third-party seller data, the House Judiciary Committee said today. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the committee chairs asked prosecutors to investigate the company for criminal obstruction of Congress.
"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," the letter says (emphasis in the original).
[...] "Amazon has declined multiple opportunities to demonstrate with credible evidence that it made accurate and complete representations," the letter says. "Amazon's failure to correct or corroborate those representations suggests that Amazon and its executives have acted intentionally to improperly influence, obstruct, or impede the Committee's investigation and inquiries."
Congress held a series of hearings as part of a 16-month antitrust investigation that scrutinized the practices of Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook, now known as Meta. During those hearings, lawmakers questioned Amazon executives about whether third-party seller data was used to develop private-label products or to privilege its own products in search results.
"We do not use any seller data to compete with [third parties]," Nate Sutton, associate general counsel for competition, told Congress in sworn testimony in July 2019. "We do not use any of that specific seller data in creating our own private brand products."
Yet as today's letter points out, subsequent investigations by The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and The Markup revealed that not only did Amazon employees working on private-label items have access to third-party data, but they routinely used it, even discussing it openly in meetings. "Amazon employees regularly violated the policy—and senior officials knew it."
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 14 2022, @09:56PM (8 children)
Start with Amazon, burn your way through Google, Microsoft, and all the rest. Only an idiot would have actually believed anything Amazon told congress. May I supply the matches? I'll order a truckload from Amazon this minute!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14 2022, @10:55PM (2 children)
Big Corporate America lie? Never! Impossible! (sarcasm rating 10,000.000 and rising)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:36PM (1 child)
Remember the tobacco execs before congress all saying: "I do not believe that smoking causes lung cancer."
Talk about delusional, or lying. Pick any two of those.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday March 15 2022, @04:58PM
Pick any two... or both.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @01:29AM
Follow the money...it won't lead you to me. I've never ordered anything from Amazon.
[I will admit to receiving things from Amazon--when eBay sellers use Amazon for "fulfillment" but don't mention that in the eBay listing.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @11:55AM
Actually Amazon provides a useful service, but if the organization picked such an idiotic strategy for the Congressional hearing, they are already on fire.
The question is how do you put out the fire and keep the useful service.
They went wrong when they became both the market making middleman and the seller. That is an irresistable conflict of interest. There are plenty of retailers that have house brands, but none have such an ownership of the market.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:10PM (2 children)
I see your post is dated pi day so I'll give you a break, Monday and all, but...
Only an idiot would have actually believed anything Amazon told congress.
Contempt of congress can have you in prison for years. You can't put Amazon in prison, but you can put the idiot who actually showed up and lied to congress in prison.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @02:40PM
In a practical sense, lying to Congress is only a punishable crime if that would be politically expedient to the party in control of that house of Congress. There has been some very flagrant and egregious examples over the last 5 or so years that were not deemed to even be worthy of addressing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 15 2022, @03:25PM
I think that all of the execs who were part of deciding what congress would be told can be thrown into the same prison cell. However, since Bezos was the actual person standing before congress, telling his lies, it probably isn't necessary to find all those execs.
Someone would have to dig into it, but I think it's actually too late. Someone found in contempt of congress can be imprisoned, but I believe that said sentence cannot exceed the session of congress to which contempt was shown. Better to find some better charge than mere contempt. I'm willing to stretch the meaning of treason just a little. He stood in front of congress giving false testimony attempting to influence long range policy of the US government, undermining the authority of that government. For people who don't like that, I'll settle for perjury under oath, and a couple of years in prison.
And it wasn't just Bezos. Facebook and Google testified as well. Burn 'em. Put all their asses in prison, and confiscate a lot of their ill-gotten assets. Facebook especially, since they were instrumental in the manipulation of the 2016 election, as well as the 2020 election.
Of course, none of that is going to happen. Bezos and the rest can just toss a few campaign donations around, buy off the most important congress critters, and everything will be just fine.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.