Amazon used proprietary data collected from third-party sellers in order to produce and sell its own products in violation of its own policies and statements to Congress, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal cited more than 20 former employees of the tech company’s private-label business and documents for its report.
Amazon refuted the claim and told the Journal it has launched an internal investigation.
“Like other retailers, we look at sales and store data to provide our customers with the best possible experience,” Amazon said in a written statement. “However, we strictly prohibit our employees from using nonpublic, seller-specific data to determine which private label products to launch.”
One former Amazon employee who accessed third-party data told the Journal, “we knew we shouldn’t.
“But at the same time, we are making Amazon branded products, and we want them to sell.”
One example cited by the Journal included that of an Amazon private-label employee accessing a detailed sales report on a car-trunk organizer manufactured by a third-party seller called Fortem.
The employee showed the Journal the report, which included total sales, how much the vendor paid Amazon for shipping and marketing, and how much Amazon made on the sale. Amazon later introduced its own car-trunk organizers.
Amazon has been looked at for potential antitrust violations at the federal level since last summer. It is also being investigated by European authorities for its third-party selling practices.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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