US lawmakers accuse Amazon of obstructing anti-trust probe

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On Wednesday, a panel of US lawmakers urged the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into allegations that Amazon tried to obstruct their anti-trust investigation into tech giants. 

The lawmakers accused Amazon and the company's executives of misleading the judiciary committee for the House of Representatives during an investigation, launched in 2019, that looks into business competition online. 

"After Amazon was caught in a lie and repeated misrepresentations, it stonewalled the committee's efforts to uncover the truth," read the letter by the committee, which is requesting the DoJ probe into the matter.

While the department did not immediately reply for comment, Amazon rejected the letter's allegations, contending that the "huge volume of information we've provided over several years" is evidence for "good faith cooperation with this investigation."

Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman, who signed the letter, accused Amazon of working to "influence, obstruct, or impede the committee's investigation and inquiries." 

The committee has been looking into questions that probe power abuses by the e-commerce giant, which sets and implements rules for marketing its products through third-party companies' products, but also Amazon's.

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"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 said.

The committee has so far questioned many Amazon representatives, in addition to Silicon Valley executives, accusing the Valley of abuse of dominance.

Italian antitrust watchdog fines Amazon $1.2 billion

Retail giant Amazon was fined $1.2 billion from an Italian antitrust probe, which has accused the company of harmful practices, as well as abusing its superior position to leverage itself in the electronic market. 

“Amazon holds a dominant position in the Italian market for intermediation services on marketplaces, which Amazon leveraged to favor the adoption of its own logistics service,” the Italian antitrust regulator said on Thursday in a statement. 

The European Union, last month, ran a court bid to probe into Amazon's retail behavior, particularly concerning how Amazon deals with sellers on its own platform. However, Amazon lost the court bid, and the EU and Italy conducted investigations - separately - into how the tech giant has been behaving. 

“We strongly disagree with the decision of the Italian Competition Authority and we will appeal,” Amazon contended in a statement. “The proposed fine and remedies are unjustified and disproportionate.”

The European Commission observes the ways retailers are chosen to appear in 'buy boxes' on internet pages and where the majority of their sales come from. How sellers have been offering their products to Amazon's Prime and whether these objectives favor Amazon over other retailers in terms of logistics and services are also looked into.