Amazon referred to US attorney general over ‘potentially criminal conduct’

Members of the Democratic-controlled House judiciary committee have referred Amazon to the Department of Justice, alleging "potentially criminal conduct" by the company and some of its senior executives.

In a letter to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, lawmakers claim that Amazon had engaged in a "pattern and practice of misleading conduct that suggests" it was acting to influence the committee's investigation into online market competition.

"Amazon repeatedly endeavored to thwart the committee's efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon's business practices," the congressional letter dated 9 March says.

"We have no choice but to refer this matter to the Department of Justice to investigate whether Amazon and its executives obstructed Congress in violation of applicable federal law," it added.

Amazon said in a statement that "there's no factual basis" for the committee's move and that it had cooperated with the investigation.

The existence of the letter, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, follows a warning from the committee in October that accused executives with the Seattle online retailing and cloud storage giant of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to it about Amazon's business practices.

A Reuters investigation last year cited documents that showed that Amazon had conducted a systematic campaign of copying products and rigging search results in India to boost sales of its own brands, or private-label brands - practices that Amazon denies.