The House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to look into whether Amazon illegally obstructed Congress as part of the panel's probe of competition in the tech industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, who chairs the subcommittee on antitrust and led the panel's investigation, tweeted Wednesday that "Amazon’s misconduct demonstrates the need for both accountability and change" and echoed the call for the Justice Department to look into "chargeable obstruction of Congress."
Cicilline and others had previouslysuggested Amazon officials misled the committee about the company's practice of examining the data of third-party sellers on its site in the creation of Amazon's own offerings.
Now, the panel argues Amazon has resisted providing evidence of the company's denials, according to the report. Amazon has previously said its policies ban such data uses.
In testimony before the House lawmakers, then-CEO Jeff Bezos even promised an internal report on practices and the rules, but the company then refused to give it, according to the Journal.
Amazon said in a statement to CNN: “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.”
Updated: This article was updated March 9, 2022, to include Amazon's response.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE