Congress calls on CEO Jeff Bezos to testify at Capitol Hill.
Amazon said yesterday that CEO Jeff Bezos is willing to testify before the House to answer questions over an antitrust probe into the tech sector after Judiciary Committee leaders threatened last month to subpoena the CEO’s testimony on Amazon’s treatment of third-party vendors.
According to POLITICO, a lawyer representing Amazon sent a letter to the leaders saying the tech giant is “committed to cooperating with your inquiry,” including “making Jeff Bezos available to testify at a hearing” with other big tech CEOs this summer. The letter added: “Of course, we will need to resolve a number of questions regarding timing, format, and outstanding document production issues, all necessarily framed by the extraordinary demands of the global pandemic (…) Amazon remains deeply concerned that you cannot assure that the most sensitive corporate documents reflecting business strategy and other competitively sensitive information would be withheld from its many competitors,” concluded Robert Kelner of the firm Covington & Burling.
NPR adds that The Federal Trade Commission and some state attorneys general are also investigating Amazon’s retail marketplace, warehouse work conditions and other parts of its business. European Union regulators are expected to reveal formal charges against Amazon in the coming weeks.
Last month, Amazon resisted demands for Bezos to appear before the committee, per CNBC, saying it would “make the appropriate executive available” for testimony.
If and when Bezos takes the stand, will be the second time a major tech CEO testifies at Capitol Hill, the last to do it was Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, when he had to explain the internet to lawmakers during the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018.
