Amazon appears before Joint Parliamentary Committee following 'misunderstanding'

Executives from Amazon India and Amazon Web Services attended the Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting on Personal Data Protection Bill on Wednesday according to sources, days after the company was caught in a controversy that it had allegedly refused to appear before the panel.

Meenakshi Lekhi, the head of the JPC, had told media last week that Amazon had refused to appear before the panel and that the committee would consider coercive action against the company for 'breach of privilege'.

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Amazon came forth to clarify that the issue was a 'misunderstanding' due to the inability of some team members to fly down to India for the meeting.

"The inability of our experts to travel from overseas due to travel restriction and depose before the JPC during the ongoing pandemic may have been misconstrued and led to a misunderstanding and we will work with the JPC to set the record straight," an Amazon spokesperson said.

On Wednesday, members from Amazon India's legal and policy teams were present at the meeting and shared recommendations for the Personal Data Protection Bill, sources said.

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While Amazon India and Amazon Web Services were called together, they made separate presentations, as per the sources cited above. Amazon did not respond to specific queries regarding the joint parliamentary committee meeting.

The JPC had heard Facebook on the bill last week, and will also hear Google, Twitter, and Paytm this week.