It has been confirmed that Jeff Bezos is willing to testify before Congress about Amazon’s competitive practices. According to a letter obtained by The New York Times and numerous publications, a lawyer for Amazon told the House Judiciary Committee that he’ll be available to take part in the panel’s antitrust investigation into Big Tech. The hearing, which is slated to start in July, is likely to involve the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon.
You can bet that the House Judiciary Committee is going to question Amazon about its use of third-party seller data. In April, the Wall Street Journal published a report in which more than 20 former Amazon employees said the company had used proprietary seller data to help design and price some of its in-house products. Speaking frankly, I doubt any observant person would be surprised by this. We tend to pay little attention to just how much information we give these large corporations and distributors. The Wall Street Journal’s reporting appears to contradict statements the company gave previously. Last July, one of Amazon’s lawyers told lawmakers, “we do not use any seller data to compete with third-party sellers.” Rrrrrriiiiiiiiight.
The July hearing with other big tech companies could be the beginning of a high-pressure summer for Amazon. Last week, The Wall Street Journal said the European Commission plans to announce antitrust charges against Amazon sometime in the next week or two.
I expect similar action to be taken against the likes of Facebook, Apple, and others as it has become increasingly apparent that they’ve been profiting off of their customer’s data for a loooooong-long time.