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
New Amazon FBA Program helps to avoid getting Out of Stock
“In-stock head start” program makes inbound products available for sale Amazon is opening up a pilot program to allow selling temporarily out-of-stock items immediately, even before the goods arrive at a fulfillment center. The creatively titled In-Stock...
eBay launches its own fulfillment service next year
eBay is planning to take on Amazon eBay has announced plans to launch its own fulfillment service called Managed Delivery, which will provide end-to-end packaging and deliveries to its sellers. The e-commerce giant plans to launch Managed Delivery in the...
Amazon “destroyed the retail industry across the US”
US Treasury Secretary criticizes Amazon US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Amazon “destroyed the retail industry across the United States”. In his opinion the attorney general should investigate the company alongside other tech giants in the...
