By akademiotoelektronik, 28/03/2023

Amazon: the platform accused of counterfeiting and favoritism

The Amazon-branded product team in India allegedly carried out a 'systematic campaign of creating counterfeit products and manipulating search results to favor its own product lines', according to a Reuters report on Wednesday .

Employees used internal data to copy products sold by other companies on the platform in India, the outlet says, citing "thousands of pages of internal Amazon documents." They also allegedly rigged search results so that the company's own-brand products appear among the top two or three product listings.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company believes the claims are “factually incorrect and unsubstantiated,” adding that Amazon strictly prohibits “the use or sharing of non-public, seller-specific data , for the benefit of any seller, own brands included”. The spokesperson also said that Amazon displays search results based on relevance to the customer's query and does not favor its own products.

A deeper problem than meets the eye

In addition to claims that Amazon is copying products from its own merchants, the company faces broader issues of authenticity. Counterfeit and banned products have persisted on the site, such as baby wedges, banned by the FDA, which the agency says have caused suffocation deaths.

Amazon: the platform accused of counterfeiting and of favoritism

Amazon had previously denied accusations of using third-party seller data to develop and sell its own products, following an April 2020 Wall Street Journal report. In July 2020, Jeff Bezos, then Amazon CEO , told Congress that the company prohibits the use of vendor-specific data to help its product development.

In March 2021, bag maker Peak Design criticized Amazon for copying its Everyday Sling product, sold on the e-commerce giant's site, along with its own Amazon Basics-branded camera bag.

The company risks tougher regulations in this area following a proposed bill in June. This law would explicitly prohibit, among other things, the use of third-party vendor data to develop proprietary brand products. It is also a question of prohibiting algorithms favoring the display of this or that brand by default. The idea is to remove the omnipotence of the platform vis-à-vis external sellers.

The vote on this law by the House of Representatives is not planned for the moment.

CNET.com article adapted by CNETFrance

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