🔥 Lawmakers are investigating whether Jeff Bezos misled Congress

Whatever anyone thinks of Amazon’s dominance, it hasn’t done anything that could violate criminal laws in the U.S. Could that be changing because of executives’ recent appearances in front of Congress?

• They addressed the House Judiciary Committee last year: Among other things, the executives, which included Bezos, said they did not provide an edge to Amazon’s own products in search results, per the NYT. 

• Two news stories cast doubt on what they said: Reuters and the Markup have reported Amazon has copied versions of products made in India and goosed search to get its own lower-rated products seen ahead of higher-ranked items, respectively. 

So in the eyes of some legislators, their testimony from last year was misleading 

And that’s in their most charitable reading of the events, according to the NYT. “At worst, it demonstrates that they may have lied to Congress in possible violation of federal criminal law,” the group of five lawmakers said.

• The lawmakers also said they were considering reporting their concerns to the DOJ for a potential investigation.

The Verdict

It’s always difficult to separate political bluster from a real accusation, and the story could easily end before any investigation. The lawmakers have asked for exculpatory evidence from Amazon to prove they did not deliberately provide misleading info, according to NPR.