“Amazon lied to Congress about its use of third-party seller data, the House Judiciary Committee said today. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the committee chairs asked prosecutors to investigate the company for criminal obstruction of Congress.”

“Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday it plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop-ups and shops carrying toys and home goods in the United States and United Kingdom, ending some of its longest-running retail experiments. The news, which Reuters was first to report, marks a turning point for a company that began as an online bookseller and helped drive established rivals such as Borders to bankruptcy. Amazon said it would focus more on its grocery markets and a department store concept going forward.”

“Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is considering dropping Visa (V.N) as partner on its U.S. co-branded credit card after earlier confirming it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the United Kingdom as a dispute over payments intensified. The e-commerce giant is in talks with several payment networks including Mastercard Inc (MA.N) , American Express Co (AXP.N) and Visa as part of what it called its standard process for reviewing its co-branded credit card agreement, a spokesperson said.”

“In a brief email to customers, Amazon said anyone using its products would now have to pursue disputes with the company in federal court, rather than go through the private and secretive arbitration process, which critics say puts consumers at a huge disadvantage . “This is a big deal,” said Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, a professor at New York University Law School who focuses on consumer law. “For so long, the tide had been going the other way, with companies adding arbitration clauses to their contracts.””

“Amazon ( AMZN ) said that Prime Day, held this past Monday and Tuesday, was the biggest two-day sales period for third-party sellers in the company’s history. Amazon said sales from third-party merchants outpaced its own sales.Amazon also said Prime members purchased more than 250 million items worldwide on Prime Day. Robotic vacuums, coffee makers and Crest Whitestrips were some of the top-selling products.”

“The Amazon Dash cart will launch along with the company’s Los Angeles supermarket later this year, the company said today. The smart cart requires a customer to log in to the cart using the Amazon app on their phone, then uses a system of cameras and sensors to take stock of what a shopper puts in the basket. It also has a touchscreen panel on the front handle, so consumers can purchase items that don’t have barcodes, such as fresh produce. When a shopper is done with their grocery trip, they roll the cart out of the “dash lane,” grab their now paid-for groceries, and saunter away.”

“Amazon’s investment in London-headquartered food delivery start-up Deliveroo is looking increasingly likely to be approved by the U.K. competition regulator.  The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Wednesday that it has “provisionally cleared” an Amazon investment that would give it a 16% stake in the company.”

“Subscription services were up 32% to $5.24 billion. This segment mainly constitutes Amazon Prime , which the company has expanded to offer deals at places like Whole Foods . Keeping in line with this strategy, Amazon announced today that Prime members now get free delivery through Amazon Fresh, which normally costs $14.99 per month. Amazon Prime membership was the main takeaway that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wanted to focus on this quarter. He shared that Amazon now has over 150 million paid Prime members, up from 100 million Prime members in April 2018.”

“dLocal ( https://dlocal.com ), an award-winning fintech company that specializes in cross-border payments for emerging countries, announced today that Amazon went live with dLocal’s local payments acceptance services in Chile.”

“Amazon is partnering with India’s second largest retail chain in an effort to further its reach into the country. The online retail giant said this week it will become the official online sales channel for India’s Future Retail. While Future Retail has more than 1,500 physical stores around India, this will be its first large-scale online sales venture.  The two have entered into a long-term business agreement which will make Amazon India the authorized online sales channel for Future Retail stores. The focus will be on groceries and general merchandise, and fashion and footwear.”

“Amazon has transformed the small miracle of each delivery into an expectation of modern life. No car, no shopping list — no planning — required. But to make it all work, Amazon runs a machine that squeezes ever more money out of the hundreds of thousands of companies, from tiny start-ups to giant brands, that put the everything into Amazon’s Everything Store.”

“Amazon.com Inc. AMZN +0.67% is blocking its third-party sellers from using FedEx FDX -1.74% Corp.’s ground delivery network for Prime shipments, citing a decline in performance heading into the final stretch of the holiday shopping season. The ban on using FedEx’s Ground and Home services starts this week and will last “until the delivery performance of these ship methods improves,” according to an email Amazon sent Sunday to merchants that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.”