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| Amazon employees access data from independent vendors |
Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos), employee and CEO of Amazon, was criticized at Wednesday's anti-monopoly legislative hearing. Because it is suspected that the company uses data from independent suppliers when developing its own products.
According to a report earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon employees received sales data from independent sellers in the market to help the company develop competing products under its own brand.
Amazon’s guidelines prohibit this practice, but lawmakers have focused on the company’s implementation of these guidelines.
When Bezos was asked about how Amazon accesses seller data and how it is used in business decisions, Amazon CEO stresses company policy to outlaw this practice.
But he said: "I cannot guarantee that this policy has never been violated. We will continue to investigate it carefully. I am not satisfied with it, but it is not easy because some of the article's sources are anonymous."
Before publishing the newspaper report, Amazon informed Congress that it was not possible to obtain sales data to control the publication of its products.
"Our motivation is to help sellers succeed because we depend on them and they have a wide range to choose from. This is why we apply the same standards to them and decide to launch our own brand without using your personal information when selling.
Cartel activists have long considered the impact of Amazon on independent sellers on its platform and how Amazon is using this power to deliver competing products to the market.
In a prominent article reviewing the law in 2017, Lina Khan described it as a classic example of infrastructure discrimination: “Amazon effectively controls the infrastructure of the Internet economy.”
However, committee members reported the documents received and inquired about the commission's investigations, which questioned Amazon's ability to enforce its policies to prevent eavesdropping on seller data.
One of the committee members said: We met the employees who said that these violations usually occur and added: "Amazon sets the rules of the game for competitors, but it does not follow them."
Amazon's instructions allow for data collection rather than specific seller data. However, committee members indicated that the collected data could provide Amazon with detailed data on specific product categories.
Amazon has also been criticized for its ability to systematically prevent sellers from selling certain products. The commission quoted direct statements from the seller stating that the seller had objected.
Bezos said: I don't think this happens much. Third parties usually perform well on Amazon.