The world’s biggest online retailer has drawn scrutiny in recent years for the vast trove of data it has amassed on a range of customers and partners, including independent merchants who sell on its retail marketplace, users of its Alexa digital assistant, and shoppers whose browsing and purchase history inform what Amazon shows them on its website.Īmazon declined to comment on the appeal, but referred to a previous statement in July that “there has been no data breach, and no customer data has been exposed to any third party."Īmazon previously said it “strongly" disagreed with the Luxembourg authority’s findings. The decision was triggered by a 2018 complaint from French privacy rights group La Quadrature du Net. "We have to continue working super hard every day to earn sellers' trust," he added.The regulator ruled that Amazon violated the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, through its processing of users’ personal data. Still, Mehta acknowledged that Amazon has room to improve its relationship with merchants, whether it be addressing enforcement issues or simplifying the selling process. "They can create their own websites, sell through other channels, sell offline and many sellers continue to choose Amazon." "They have a lot of choices for where to sell their products," Mehta said. Mehta said the majority of third-party sellers are "thriving" on Amazon. They've also contended that Amazon hampers third-party sellers businesses through an increasingly automated account suspension and appeals process, which can be lengthy and financially crippling. Sellers have complained that Amazon unfairly competes with third-party businesses on its platform, with some alleging Amazon directly knocked off their goods. In addition to goods from third-party sellers, Amazon also sells its own products under the AmazonBasics moniker, along with other brand names. "It just doesn't make sense because we're in this for the long haul with our selling partners." "Every now and then you see speculation around short-term, profit-driven actions and Amazon would not do that," Mehta said. Those findings followed earlier reporting from The Wall Street Journal, which found Amazon employees developed workarounds to Amazon's policies so that they could review individual seller data and launch competing products.Īmazon has denied that the company and its executives misled the committee, saying it has internal policies that prohibit employees from using single sellers' data to develop its own products.ĭharmesh Mehta, Amazon's vice president of customer trust and partner support, told CNBC that media reports detailing the company's use of seller data are inaccurate. Last week, Reuters and The Markup published reports that Amazon used internal seller data to copy popular products and rigged search results to favor its own private-label products. More recently, lawmakers have questioned Amazon over whether it uses third-party seller data to launch private-label goods and boosts those products in search results.įive members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter Sunday to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy urging him to respond to allegations that top executives, including founder and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos, misled or lied to Congress about its private-label business practices. Sellers who used FBA saw a 20% to 25% increase in their sales on average, Amazon said.Īs part of broader antitrust scrutiny into Amazon's business practices, regulators have zeroed in on the company's logistics business and examined whether the company pressures sellers into using its services in exchange for preferential treatment on the marketplace. sellers used Fulfillment by Amazon, a service that packages and ships orders for sellers from the company's warehouses. The report, which comes ahead of Amazon's annual seller conference on Wednesday, also highlights the growth of the company's third-party seller services and its rising investments in the marketplace. sellers sold more than 3.8 billion products over the period, compared with 3.4 billion in the year prior. 31, up from $170,000 during the same period last year, Amazon said. netted an average of $200,000 in sales in the 12 months ended Aug. In a report issued Tuesday, Amazon sought to characterize the roughly 2 million small- and medium-sized businesses that sell on its site as "selling partners," many of which have benefited from the outsized growth of e-commerce during the coronavirus pandemic. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lowerīut in recent months, lawmakers, antitrust watchdogs and advocacy groups have voiced growing concerns around Amazon's treatment of third-party sellers and whether the company unfairly favors its own products on its marketplace. Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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