Thread by @stacyfmitchell

It seems Amazon lied to Congress. An exec testified in July that Amazon doesn’t use data from sellers to create its own rival products.

Turns out it does. This is monopoly behavior, hence the coverup. @HouseJudiciary must call Bezos to testify. 1/

wsj.com/articles/amazo…

@HouseJudiciary Interviews with over 20 Amazon employees reveal that they routinely gathered detailed sales & cost data from product makers selling on the site. They used the data to make competing Amazon-brand products. 2/

Amazon is looking for a fall-guy.

“”We strictly prohibit our employees from using nonpublic, seller-specific data to determine which private label products to launch.”’ Amazon said ... company has launched an internal investigation.” 3/

Amazon is the mostly tightly controlled company I’ve ever studied. If they intended to enforce this supposed fence, they would have. 4/

Not only does Amazon not enforce the fence — employees easily spied on individual sellers — but its definition of the “fence” is ludicrous. Amazon says it allows the use of "aggregated data," which it defines as data from just 2 sellers, even if 1 of those has no sales! 5/

What needs to happen now? First, Jeff Bezos, who’s never testified before Congress (a stunning fact), must be called by the @HouseJudiciary as part of its Big Tech antitrust investigation. 6/

@HouseJudiciary Second, Congress should refer Amazon counsel Nate Sutton, who testified last July, to the DOJ for a criminal perjury investigation.

(I was in the room when he testified and wasn’t alone in reacting audibly when he insisted that Amazon doesn't spy on sellers.) 7/

@HouseJudiciary Finally, Congress and the FTC need to breakup Amazon by spinning off its platform to be a stand-alone neutral utility, completely separate from Amazon Retail.

That's what I called for when I testified that day, after Sutton. 8/8

ilsr.org/ilsrs-stacy-mi…