House panel wants Bezos to testify in tech probe

WASHINGTON — House lawmakers investigating the market dominance of big tech are asking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify to address possible misleading statements by the company on its competition practices.

In a letter to Bezos on Friday, leaders of the House Judiciary Committee from both parties are holding out the threat of a subpoena if he doesn’t agree voluntarily to appear.

Amazon used sensitive information about sellers on its marketplace, their products and transactions to develop its own competing products, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. An Amazon executive denied such a practice in statements at a committee hearing last July, saying the company has a formal policy against it.

Amazon had no immediate comment. The Judiciary antitrust subcommittee led by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has been conducting a sweeping investigation of big tech companies and their impact on competition and consumers, focusing on Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission also are pursuing antitrust probes of the four companies, and state attorneys general from both parties have undertaken investigations of Google and Facebook.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the e-commerce giant and Bezos. He has accused Amazon of destroying the U.S. Postal Service by swamping it with packages to deliver, at below-market rates charged by the postal service that are deepening its financial woes. USPS is to receive a $10 billion loan under the government’s pandemic rescue package, although the administration has signaled it will use the funds as leverage to extract changes from the tech firm.