House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has decried Amazon’s (AMZN) response to the House as ‘unacceptable’ in a Twitter post on May 16.
“This is unacceptable. Members from both parties have serious questions about Amazon’s business practices and its honesty with the Committee. We will not permit stonewalling of our investigation, by Jeff Bezos or anyone” he tweeted, after Amazon released its response to the House Judiciary Committee’s letter on seller data.
The e-commerce giant promised to make an executive available to the committee, but failed to mention CEO Jeff Bezos specifically: “We have been working with the Committee in good faith for nearly a year to provide answers and information, and we remain prepared to make the appropriate Amazon executive available to the Committee to address these issues” the company said.
In particular, the House is interested in an April 2020 Wall Street Journal report alleging that Amazon employees have “used data about independent sellers on the company’s platform to develop competing products, a practice at odds with the company’s stated policies.”
In its response to the Judiciary Committee on this issue, Amazon wrote, “we too were deeply troubled to learn of the claims that employees intentionally violated our policy. We are investigating those claims thoroughly now, and we look forward to sharing the results of that investigation with you.”
Nonetheless, analysts continue to rate AMZN stock favorably with a Strong Buy consensus. Out of 41 analysts covering the e-commerce company, 38 rate the stock a buy with 2 hold ratings and 1 sell rating. Meanwhile the $2,673 average analyst price target translates into upside potential of 11%. Shares have already climbed 30% year-to-date. (See Amazon stock analysis on TipRanks).
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