Amazon is facing backlash from independent retailers after reports it has been listing and selling products from other websites without the sellers’ consent, using new AI-driven shopping features designed to keep customers inside its ecosystem.

According to multiple media reports, the ecommerce giant has been pulling product data from retailers’ own websites and surfacing those items on Amazon through tools known as ‘Buy for Me’ and ‘Shop Direct’.

In some cases, shoppers can complete a purchase without leaving Amazon; in others, they are redirected to the brand’s site. Either way, several business owners say they never opted in.

US-based stationery brand Bobo Design Studio is among those affected. Owner Angie Chua said she began receiving unusual orders from Amazon-linked email addresses for items that were out of stock or no longer sold.

Other merchants have reported similar issues, including mislabelled products, incorrect pricing and customers believing they were buying directly from Amazon.

Because the orders are ultimately fulfilled by the retailer, returns and complaints often land with small businesses – even when the error originates from Amazon’s systems.

The controversy is particularly pointed because Amazon has spent the past year cracking down on other companies’ AI agents and scrapers.

In November, it sued AI start-up Perplexity over a browser that could shop on users’ behalf, arguing that automated buying undermined user privacy and violated its terms of service. Yet critics now say Amazon is doing something similar to others by scraping public product data from independent sites.

Amazon says the programs are still being tested and are meant to “help customers discover brands and products not currently sold in Amazon’s store, while helping businesses reach new customers and drive incremental sales”. The company says merchants can opt out at any time by contacting it.

However, for many small retailers, the issue is less about process and more about control and trust. Some deliberately avoid Amazon to protect their brand, pricing and customer relationships but are now finding their catalogues appearing there anyway.