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Amazon Continues To Investigate Employee Use of Third-Party Data

By  |  July 30, 2020

Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive of Amazon, said the company continues to investigate the allegations behind a Wall Street Journal article in April that detailed how Amazon employees used individual third-party seller data to develop Amazon-branded products, reported the WSJ. 

Testifying before the House Antitrust Subcommittee in his first appearance before Congress, Mr. Bezos faced repeated questions from lawmakers in both parties about the story’s findings. He noted that Amazon has a policy prohibiting employees from using data on specific sellers to inform decisions about launching or developing its own products.

“I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated,” Mr. Bezos said, noting that the company was working to better understand some of the anecdotes in the Journal’s coverage. Mr. Bezos emphasized that Amazon wants third-party sellers to succeed.

Amazon has acknowledged that its employees can use and review “aggregate” seller data, when there are multiple sellers of the same product. The Journal investigation detailed examples of supposedly aggregated data being derived exclusively or almost entirely from one seller, according to former Amazon employees and documents reviewed in the investigation.

Full Content: Wall Street Journal

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