Amazon Slammed Over “Troubling” Private-Label Practices In US Hearings

Amazon Chief Executive, Jeff Bezos, has been slammed with questions over the e-commerce giant’s private-label practises in today’s landmark US hearings, citing reports it misused proprietary data to develop Amazon-branded products.

Raised by Rep. Ken Buck, “troubling” evidence suggested Amazon met with startups and used proprietary information gained from external meetings to develop in-house products.

It follows an eye-opening report from the WSJ, where several investors and advisors involved in Amazon’s venture-capital arm claim the tech giant used deal-making processes to guide rival products.

“These allegations are serious especially because the size and scope of these practises couldn’t happen without Amazon’s monopolistic control of the marketplace,” said Rep. Buck.

Microphone tech startup, Vocalife, was used as an example, after similar technology was deemed to be within Amazon’s Echo smart speaker, sometime after a meeting with its founder.

Mr Bezos was also quizzed about reports Amazon used individual, and aggregate, third-party seller data to guide its private-label arm.

When questioned, Bezos confirmed ‘aggregate data’ includes more than one seller. When asked whether Amazon uses aggregate data to inform its private-label division even if there was only three sellers for a product, Bezos agreed.

The landmark hearings follow concerns from American lawmakers about the market power of US tech giants, as their valuations synonymously soaring during the COVID19 pandemic.

The CEOs of Amazon, Apple. Facebook and Google were all summoned.

Unfortunately, a technical issue in Mr Bezos’ virtual feed prompt a short recess in the hearings, to the amusement of some commentators.

Bezos was unafraid to note his uncertainty around some areas, including when asked whether Alexa is craft to favour Amazon products for shopping queries.

Mr Bezos was also quizzed about Amazon’s long-running counterfeit problem, with the e-commerce portal found to have sold ‘knock-offs’ of name-brand products on several occasions.

Bezos highlighted ongoing efforts by his team, with a division of over 1,000 employees overseeing the issue.

Concerning allegations of data theft by China from US tech giants, Mr Bezos affirmed he had “heard” of many reports, but “haven’t seen it personally.”

Both Democrats and Republicans gathered at the congressional hearing, to quiz the tech-giants over commercial methods for around five hours.