Get the Cuffs, Ponch

The Congress has referred Amazon executives to the Justice Department for possible prosecution for lying to them under oath. 

Congress was investigating potentially monopolistic behavior by the online retailing giant, and Amazon executives lied through their teeth:

A U.S. congressional committee is asking the Justice Department to investigate Amazon.com Inc. and some of its executives for what lawmakers say is potentially criminal obstruction of Congress, according to people familiar with the matter and a letter containing the request.

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The letter accuses the Seattle-based tech giant of refusing to provide information that lawmakers sought as part of an investigation by the body’s Antitrust Subcommittee into Amazon’s competitive practices. The letter alleges that the refusal was an attempt to cover up what it calls a lie that the company told lawmakers about its treatment of outside sellers on its platform.

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Throughout the investigation, “Amazon repeatedly endeavored to thwart the Committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon’s business practices,” the congressional letter says. “For this, it must be held accountable.” The letter says it is alerting the Justice Department to “potentially criminal conduct by Amazon and certain of its executives,” though it doesn’t specify which individuals.

The letter escalates tensions between Amazon and lawmakers who conducted a 16-month antitrust investigation into it and three other tech giants: Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms Inc.

The investigation produced an October 2020 report that criticized all four companies and has fueled legislative proposals aimed at curbing their power. But the lawmakers’ interaction with Amazon has been particularly contentious, according to people involved, and the new letter makes it the only one of the four companies that Judiciary Committee members have accused of illegal obstruction.

At issue are Amazon’s responses to lawmakers’ inquiries about how it uses the data of third-party sellers on its platform when creating private-label products, and how it treats those Amazon brands in its search results.

A Journal investigation published in April 2020, citing internal documents and interviews with former Amazon staffers, found the company’s employees routinely used such seller data to develop products for its own brands. Subsequent reporting from Reuters, Politico and the Markup showed employees using this data and Amazon preferencing its own products in search results. Lawmakers have said they also gained similar information through their own interviews with people including former Amazon employees.

Frog march them out of their offices in handcuffs.

Anything else is just a cost of doing business.