GOP senator wants Barr to launch criminal investigation into Amazon

Hawley’s call for an antitrust investigation into Amazon is not without precedent.

The European Union’s top antitrust regulator said last year it was probing whether Amazon was gaining an advantage from its dual role as a marketplace operator and seller of its own products.

20 former employees of Amazon’s private-label business and a review of documents, that the online retail giant used the information from other sellers to price items, determine which features to copy or whether to enter a product segment based on its earning potential.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is calling on Attorney General William Barr to launch a criminal antitrust investigation into Amazon over reports that it used data from third-party sellers on its platform to develop competing products.

“Abusing one’s position as a marketplace platform to create copycat products always is bad, but it is especially concerning now,” Hawley wrote in a Tuesday letter to Barr.

“Thousands of small businesses have been forced to suspend in-store retail and instead rely on #Amazon because of shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic. #Amazon’s reported data practices are an existential threat that may prevent these businesses from ever recovering.”

“#Amazon says it doesn’t use information on third-party sellers to inform its private-label business. But interviews with more than 20 employees and documents I reviewed show a pattern of using this data to create their own competing items”

“This report raises deep concerns about #Amazon’s apparent lack of candor before the Committee regarding an issue that is central to our investigation,” Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) said in the memo on Thursday following our story. on.wsj.com/2VSTePB