Now that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is up and running, he’s fielding a lot of questions. Rep. David Cicilline asked follow up questions about Amazon’s private-label division, asking if it was a conflict of interest. Rep, Ken Buck raised evidence that Amazon meets with start ups and then uses the proprietary data from those meetings to create its own products. The Journal last week published a story in which it interviewed more than two dozen entrepreneurs, investors and deal advisers who said Amazon appeared to use the investment and deal-making process to help develop competing products. Mr. Buck called The Journal’s stories about Amazon’s private-label practices and venture-capital arm “troubling.” He said the example of a startup called Vocalife, which contends that Amazon used Vocalife’s technology in its Echo device after meeting with its founder and asking for information, “sticks out in particular.”“These allegations are serious especially because the size and scope of these practices couldn’t happen without Amazon’s monopolistic control of the marketplace,” said Mr. Buck.

Source: Wall Street Journal July 29, 2020 12:54 UTC