A Congressman is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Amazon after a report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that Amazon employees used data about third-party sellers on the e-commerce platform to create competing products.

Amazon says it doesn't use information on third-party sellers to inform its private-label business. But interviews with more than 20 employees and documents I reviewed show a pattern of using this data to create their own competing itemshttps://t.co/FY4ROVoc2g $AMZN

— Dana Mattioli (@DanaMattioli) April 23, 2020

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, asserted in a letter to Attorney General William Barr that Amazon seems to be engaging in “predatory and exclusionary data practices to build and maintain a monopoly.”

Hawley asserted that the WSJ’s reporting on Amazon suggests that the Seattle-based ecommerce corporation’s actions would meet the definition of a crime punishable under antitrust law.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri

“Amazon abuses its position as an online platform and collects detailed data about merchandise so Amazon can create copycat products under an Amazon brand,” Hawley stated. 

According to the WSJ report from investigative journalist Dana Mattioli, Amazon collects certain data about third-party sellers on its site that the sellers view as proprietary. While Amazon’s stated policy is not to access such data when making and developing its own products, the e-commerce giant in fact does engage in such activity, according to more than 20 former employees and business documents reviewed by WSJ.

Using such information can help Amazon determine everything from how to price a competing product to understand what product features to emulate and more, Mattioli reported.

“In one instance, Amazon employees accessed documents and data about a bestselling car-trunk organizer sold by a third-party vendor,” Mattioli wrote. “The information included total sales, how much the vendor paid Amazon for marketing and shipping, and how much Amazon made on each sale. Amazon’s private-label arm later introduced its own car-trunk organizers.”

In a statement, Hawley said: “Abusing one’s position as a marketplace platform to create copycat products always is bad, but it is especially concerning now. Thousands of small businesses have been forced to suspend in-store retail and instead rely on Amazon because of shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon’s reported data practices are an existential threat that may prevent these businesses from ever recovering.”

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos

While denying wrongdoing, Amazon has launched an internal investigation based on WSJ’s report. In the past, the company has testified to the House Antitrust Subcommittee that it uses aggregated data from multiple third-party sellers to help steer its product strategy, but maintained that it does not review sales data for individual products. Doing so would violate its policies, the company says.

“Like other retailers, we look at sales and store data to provide our customers with the best possible experience,” Amazon said in a written statement to The Wall Street Journal. “However, we strictly prohibit our employees from using nonpublic, seller-specific data to determine which private label products to launch.”