Lawmakers call for criminal probe of Amazon, alleging it stonewalled investigation

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Amazon, accusing the ecommerce giant of deceiving lawmakers during a recent antitrust investigation.

In a March 9 letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, leaders of the House Judiciary Committee claim that Amazon has refused to provide business records detailing how it uses data belonging to third-party sellers on its platform and accusing executives of making "false and misleading statements" in previous testimony before the panel. That amounts to "potentially criminal conduct" by the company and some senior executives, whom the committee does not name, the letter states.

During an investigation into Amazon and three other Big Tech companies, Nate Sutton, associate general counsel for Amazon, testified to Congress that the company doesn't "use individual seller data to directly compete with them."