On the eve of Prime Day, Amazon is targeted by the EU!

A few days ago, the European Commission issued a request for information (RFI) to Temu, asking it to explain how it would comply with the regulations. As a result, Amazon also received the same notice within a few days.

Last Friday, the European Commission said it required Amazon to provide information and explanations on how it complies with the Digital Services Act ( DSA), and the deadline for submission of information is July 26. Like Temu, if Amazon does not submit on time, it will face fines; if the European Commission believes that Amazon has problems, it will launch a formal investigation. It is worth mentioning that Amazon's annual promotion Prime Day is about to be held.

It is reported that the information request (RFI) issued by the European Commission to Amazon this time mainly focuses on two aspects: one is the recommendation algorithm used by Amazon to generate shopping suggestions; the other is Amazon's advertising system.

The Digital Services Act explicitly states that technology companies must ensure the transparency of their recommendation algorithms. Therefore, in order to assess whether Amazon meets this requirement, the EU issued an RFI to Amazon. Amazon must provide detailed information in its materials on the “input factors, features, signals, information and metadata” used to generate recommendations.

In addition to stipulating the obligations that ordinary digital service platforms need to fulfill, the bill also specifically emphasizes the obligations that VLOPs (very large online platforms) with more than 45 million users need to fulfill. For example, for very large online platforms, the Digital Services Act also requires their recommendation algorithms to meet additional requirements: consumers must have a way to opt out of various offers generated based on their personal data. Amazon was identified as a VLOP by the European Commission in March last year, so the European Commission also specifically asked Amazon in this RFI to explain in detail whether the platform meets this requirement.

Regarding Amazon's advertising system, the European Commission requires it to provide information on the "development, deployment, testing and maintenance" of the advertising library pages in accordance with the provisions of DSA so that the agency can assess the potential risks to users.

This is not the first time that Amazon has been asked by the EU to provide information on DSA compliance. Last November, the EU asked Amazon to provide detailed information on the measures it has taken to prevent illegal products from appearing and spreading on the platform; in January this year, the European Commission also asked Amazon to provide information on the transparency algorithm.

In fact, not only e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Temu, but other technology giants have also entered the sight of the European Commission. In addition to Amazon, Bloomberg also reported last week that the European Commission is expected to issue a formal warning to Elon Musk's X (the predecessor of Twitter) for failing to crack down on dangerous content on the platform; at the same time, Apple (AAPL) was also accused by the European Commission of violating DSA by "unfairly restricting developers from seeking payment methods."

Amazon

Compliance

European Union