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US Congress ArgumentsAmazon Response

Amazon is using sensitive 3rd party data to inform which products to produce. Amazon has “internal policies” against this, but little-to-no enforcement.

Amazon has a policy forbidding employees from using private merchant data. However, Bezos replied that he “can’t guarantee you that policy has never been violated”

Amazon holds an unfair position as both the marketplace and a seller on it. Once they produce a new product, they self-promote their private-label products ahead of their competitors in search algorithms.

Amazon denies the claim that their algorithms factor in whether a product is sold by Amazon or not (written testimony, #7). An article in the WSJ contradicts their reply.

Merchants have no other option as Amazon is “the only game in town”. A market survey, presented during the hearing, showed Amazon with 47% of the market while second place only had 6.1%.

Sellers have many other options to reach consumers beyond Amazon. If they don’t want to use Amazon, they can opt-out.