Australian Regulator Says Amazon Won’t Describe Search Algorithm

Amazon has reportedly been declining to describe its product-search system to an Australian competition regulator which has seen complaints of large markets giving preference to in-house wares, Reuters wrote Thursday (April 28).

Amazon withholding this info could set the stage for a rehashing of the showdown Australia had last year with Facebook and Google, both of which now pay content royalties to the media as a result.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) mentioned Amazon’s stance in a Thursday report, which was part of a five-year review of Big Tech regulation. The ACCC said in the report that it had surveyed 80 online merchants, with almost half of them believing large marketplace platforms skewed searches and website presentation to put more emphasis on their own products.

Amazon told the ACCC that it hadn’t done this, but the report noted that “the ACCC sought details about inputs of Amazon’s algorithms, which were not provided,” meaning the regulator “does not have information about how Amazon’s algorithms produce search results.”

Michael Cooley, Amazon Australia director of public policy, said that the company’s offers were “the ones we think customers will prefer, regardless of whether it is from Amazon or one of our seller partners.”

The ACCC did note that Australia’s online retail market was not dominated by Amazon as fellow countries like the U.S. or U.K. were, as the company didn’t fully enter the country until 2017.

Earlier this week, PYMNTS wrote that representatives from ABC Television Affiliates Association, the CBS Television Network Affiliates Association, the FBC Television Association and the NBC Television Affiliates sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking it to regulate more heavily on Big Tech.

Read more: Broadcasters Urge FCC to Regulate Big Tech

The Four Affiliates Associations, as they are known, said that local stations are the “most trusted source” for news and emergency information, and Big Tech should compensate local broadcasters fairly for distributing their news content.