US senators against Amazon
A bipartisan group of senators in the US has announced plans to introduce a new antitrust bill that could reshape Amazon and other online marketplaces.
The proposed bill would prohibit platforms from requiring companies operating on their sites to purchase the platform’s goods or services. The bill also would ban tech companies from biasing search results to favor their own products, reports Seattle Times.
This announcement follows a Reuters report claiming that Amazon used marketplace search data to copy popular products and manipulate results favoring the company’s own knockoff products.
It is backed by an investigation published Thursday by online tech watchdog The Markup with similar conclusions: the most reliable predictor of whether an item appears at the top of search results is not the number of reviews it has garnered or how well it is rated, but whether it is an Amazon-branded product. The Markup said it came to its conclusions after examining data on search results for thousands of terms.
The new reports add even more steam to a growing consensus that Amazon exercises too much power over its marketplace platform, to the detriment of sellers and consumers.
The Verge points out that the bipartisan support is a significant step forward for lawmakers seeking to regulate online marketplaces, showing that both Republicans and Democrats are willing to work together to spur competition in the industry.
More Amazon news
Amazon bans Chinese sellers with $1 billion revenue
Several top Chinese sellers have disappeared from Amazon Amazon has blocked over a dozen Chinese sellers for alleged “suspicious behaviour”, including two of the biggest electronics Amazon-native brands out of China. The total sales by the suspended sellers exceeds...
Amazon will let sellers contact customers directly
Amazon is loosening its grip on customers Amazon is testing a new feature for sellers that will let them contact customers directly by email to notify them of things like new product announcements or sales. It’s a major change from Amazon’s current policy, which is to...
What is Amazon FBA New Selection program?
A no-risk program for new sellers on Amazon Amazon is now offering free storage, free removals, and free return processing for a limited time for new-to-FBA ASINs. On top of that, if you’ve never sold a product using Amazon’s fulfillment services, you can qualify for...
