 |
| Amazon fakes search results to promote its brand |
Amazon has used its search system and user data to outpace Indian sellers, according to a new report from Reuters.
The report, based on internal emails, strategic plans, and other documents, outlines an ambitious plan for their internal brand to take control of the platform.
According to the document, the plan includes a strategy that the company has fiercely contested in antitrust reviews.
The Reuters article provides extensive detail about the so-called Amazon India activities. Including claims that company employees have increased the ratings of some product listings to ensure that corporate brands like AmazonBasics appear at the top of two or three search results in that category.
The second, broader claim is for the company to identify and copy standard or standard products that are popular with customers. Apparently, at least two executives have revised the plan.
The copying process seems to be more than copying the look of familiar products. According to reports, these documents indicated that Amazon India employees reviewed internal data such as the number of customer returns and then designed the product accordingly.
Reuters zitierte einen internen markeninternen Solimo-Bericht aus dem Jahr 2016 progress.
The report also describes a plan for working with the original manufacturer of the reference product to capture the unique process that affects the final quality of the product.
Amazon clone seller products
Amazon denied the allegations in a statement to Reuters, saying they were in fact false and baseless. However, a 2020 report from the Wall Street Journal found that company employees were checking detailed internal sales data to exclude independent sellers with competing products.
Amazon told the newspaper that such tactics are strictly prohibited among employees and rejected the allegations during a hearing in the US Congress. Until then, CEO Jeff Bezos said he could not guarantee that the policy would never be violated.
During the interview, Bezos described the potential breach as the behavior of individual employees rather than an official strategy described by Reuters.
As explained by Reuters, the company is under investigation in India for alleged anti-competitive behaviour. The regulators are also investigating Flipkart, a Wal-Mart-backed competitor.