The House Judiciary Committee is trying to figure out if Amazon executives, including Jeff Bezos, lies to Congress last year about Amazon's anti-competitive practices. The executives told the committee that they have no system in place to prioritize Amazon's products in search results and that they do not copy competitor's products. But a Reuters investigation found that this WAS the case in India, and that at least 2 executives were aware of it, according to internal documents. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening and why it could mean big trouble for Bezos.
Link - https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58961836
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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
You know, maybe I grew up in a different time, but there was a point in American history where lying to Congress was actually a really big deal. You know, if you were a president, you could get impeached for that, which is what happened in my life when I was coming of age in the 1990s. But I guess today, things are a little different. You can lie to Congress, you can get busted lying to Congress and maybe they'll do something. Maybe they won't. And the latest instance we have of somebody who most likely lied to Congress is Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. Here's what happened. Last year Bezos and several other Amazon executives testified to Congress about their so-called anti-competitive practices, which all of them, including Bezos himself, denied were a thing. And specifically the house was looking at what Amazon was doing over in India and they said, we have evidence that you're manipulating your own Amazon algorithm to promote your products ahead of competitors.
And that you're also basically ripping off your competitors products. So if there is a competitor product that's doing really well, Amazon will put out their version of the product and always list it ahead of the competitor in the search results. Those are monopolistic practices and it's illegal. But all the Amazon executives, including Bezos said, nope, absolutely no way. This isn't a thing that's happening. That's not true. Okay. So how do we think they're lying? Why is Congress now investigating whether Bezos and his executives lied? Well, I'm glad you asked that question because there was a massive Reuters report that came out recently that basically showed us using documents from Amazon, that these individuals are lying. That they knew there was algorithm manipulation that placed Amazon products ahead and of course that they were basically, again, ripping off their competitors products so that they could get those sales and said, instead of the other retailers using Amazon, basically as their storefront. So now what? Well, the house judiciary committee has announced that they are now investigating this, but think of how glorious this could be, folks.
We might have Jeff Bezos busted lying to Congress. Doesn't that seem like that would be a bigger story here in the United States? I mean, you know, there's probably a good reason why the Washington Post isn't covering it. Right. But where the hell is everybody else on this? I got this story from BBC. Okay. I had to get it from an overseas news outlet in order to find out what in the hell is going on in our country. And I don't think that's an accident. I think that is an indictment of the American media. Oh, everybody loves to go after Jeff Bezos, right. But when it actually comes down to a potential criminal action by Jeff Bezos, the media is silent, and there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for that. So this investigation is going to move forward. Maybe Bezos lied. Maybe he didn't. But this should still be headline news across the country when one of, if not the most wealthy human being on the planet, lied to the United States Congress about his businesses' deceptive practices. I think that warrants a little more coverage.
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