WASHINGTON (Reuters] – The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has asked five members to ask the U.S. Department Of Justice for an investigation into Amazon.com Inc.’s (NASDAQ) “potentially criminal misconduct” and certain of its senior officers.

A bipartisan group wrote to the United States Attorney General alleging that Amazon was using a misleading pattern and practice to influence or block the panel’s inquiry into digital competition.

The March 9th letter stated that “We are forced to refer the matter to the Department of Justice in order to determine whether Amazon or its executives have obstructed Congress under applicable federal law.”

Amazon responded to Reuters via an emailed message. A spokesperson for Amazon stated that there was no basis for the claim. This is evident in the large amount of information provided by Amazon over many years of cooperation in good faith with this investigation.

An immediate response was not received from the DOJ to our request for comment.

Following a warning by members of U.S. Committee in October 2021, Amazon’s top executives including its founder Jeff Bezos were accused of misleading Congress and possibly lying about Amazon’s business practices.

The letter was sent days after a Reuters investigation revealed that Amazon had engaged in systematic copying and rigging of search results in India for increased sales. This is something Amazon strongly denies.

The members had at the time stated the Reuters story and recent articles in several other news outlets “directly contradicts the sworn testimony and representations of Amazon’s top executives – including former CEO Jeffrey Bezos.”

Amazon stated at that time that the company’s executives had not “misled the committee”, and they have since denied the claim and tried to rectify the record regarding the incorrect media articles.

The U.S. attorneys general sent Wednesday’s letter. They cited news stories, including from Politico, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters about American ecommerce company’s business practices.

Additionally, they stated that Amazon refused to provide evidence to support its claims that it made complete and accurate representations to the panel throughout its investigation.

The Reuters investigation in October, which was based on a review of thousands of internal Amazon documents, showed that, at least in India, Amazon had a formal, clandestine policy of manipulating search results to favor Amazon’s own products, as well as copying other sellers’ goods – and that at least two senior company executives had reviewed it.

U.S. lawmakers sent a second letter citing the Reuters story. Amazon released a November 1st letter in which it informed five of its members that Amazon is “looking into the allegations” and adding that doing so would require time.

Amazon stated to the U.S. panel “creating private brands similar or identical to existing brands” was a popular retail practice.

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