NEW YORK, April 7 — US regulators are investigating whether e-commerce colossus Amazon used information from merchants using its platform to create its own products, the the wall street journal reported Wednesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is requesting copies of emails and other communications from executives regarding how seller information was used by Amazon employees, the Newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Neither the SEC nor Amazon responded to a request for comment.
In an earlier report, the newspaper quoted former Amazon employees as saying the online retail titan used other sellers’ data on its platform without their permission.
Amazon collected information about third-party sales trends on its website to develop private label products, the Journal reported.
The House Judiciary Committee has been examining Amazon’s practices since 2019 and questioned founder Jeff Bezos and others on the subject during the hearings.
In March, committee members asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate whether the Seattle-based company broke the law.
They accused an Amazon executive of lying under oath that the company didn’t use any data from third-party vendors.
Amazon denied the allegations, but did not provide the supporting documents requested by elected officials, according to the commission. —AFP
