US lawmakers are urging the Department of Justice to launch an investigation on Amazon and some of its executives for what they contend to be potentially criminal obstruction of Congress, media reports said.

A House Committee, which investigated Amazon in 2019 and 2020 for possible antitrust violations, is accusing the tech giant of lying to Congress.

“Amazon repeatedly endeavoured to thwart the Committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon’s business practices,” members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland dated March 9.

The lawmakers claimed that despite sworn testimony, a senior executive of Amazon lied about how the tech giant had used the data collected from third-party sellers.

The letter stated that the Seattle-based tech giant made false and misleading statements to the House Committee about its practices and then refused to provide information sought by the lawmakers as part of the probe by the body’s Antitrust Subcommittee.

The testimony referred to in the letter was given during a 16-month congressional investigation into anticompetitive practices by tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook. Amazon representatives, including founder Jeff Bezos, had said the company did not permit employees to use data from third-party sellers to compete against them or make rival products. However, a series of media reports later suggested that Amazon had used data to craft rival products.

In October 2021, the lawmakers had asked the company’s chief executive officer Andy Jassy to “correct the record” or they would refer the issue to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.

However, Amazon continued to deny misusing seller data and refused to turn over business records. “As a result, we have no choice but to refer this matter to the Department of Justice,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

The committee showcased “credible investigative reporting” by Reuters, The Markup, The Wall Street Journal and others that contradicted the testimony given by founder Jeff Bezos and other executives. They even provided evidence from former Amazon employees and former and current sellers.

“There’s no factual basis for this, as demonstrated in the huge volume of information we’ve provided over several years of good-faith cooperation with this investigation,” an Amazon spokeswoman told CNBC in a statement.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)

First Published:Mar 10, 2022 11:28 AM IST