Amazon Defends Self After Report Finds Banned Products; FTC's Chopra Concerned

Chopra tweeted: “This article raises real concerns about whether Amazon is profiting from widespread deception on its platform. Deceptive acts or practices can threaten our health and safety, and are unlawful under the FTC Act.” Amazon cited the hundreds of millions of items it sells, saying it continuously works to refine and improve tools that “prevent suspicious, unsafe, or non-compliant products from being listed in our store.” It described new seller account vetting that includes several verifications and machine learning technology to stop bad actors “before they can register or list a single product in our store.” All products offered on Amazon “must comply with applicable laws and regulations, and our own policies,” it said, citing safety testing requirements set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Last year, Amazon teams and technologies proactively blocked more than 3 billion suspect listings “for various forms of abuse, including non-compliance,” before their listings appeared on the e-commerce site, it said. Once a product is available, Amazon continuously scans product listings and updates to find products that might “present a concern.” Every few minutes, tools review the hundreds of millions of products Amazon sells, scanning the more than 5 billion daily changes to product pages and analyze customer reviews, it said. Tools use natural language processing and machine learning to “constantly get better at proactively blocking suspicious products.” When Amazon receives reports of safety issues, it removes unsafe products from the website and investigates, it said. If a customer reports a concern with a product, “a customer service associate can instantly trigger an investigation.” Amazon can trace and directly alert customers to a potential safety issue, it said, and its “robust programs” ensure products offered for sale there are “safe and compliant.”