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Incident 437: Amazon India Allegedly Rigged Search Results to Promote Own Products

Description: Amazon India allegedly copied products and rigged search algorithm to boost its own brands in search ranking, violating antitrust laws.

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Alleged: Amazon India developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed small businesses in India and Amazon customers in India.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
437
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2016-12-31
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

6.1. Power centralization and unfair distribution of benefits

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Socioeconomic & Environmental Harms

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+3
Amazon India allegedly rigged search results and ripped off sellers’ products
Amazon India allegedly rigged search results and ripped off sellers’ products

Amazon India allegedly rigged search results and ripped off sellers’ products

theverge.com

Amazon systematically used third-party sellers' data to copy products and promote them to shoppers, despite saying otherwise, according to a new report

Amazon systematically used third-party sellers' data to copy products and promote them to shoppers, despite saying otherwise, according to a new report

businessinsider.com

Amazon copied products and rigged search results, documents show

Amazon copied products and rigged search results, documents show

reuters.com

Amazon India allegedly copied products and promoted its own versions in searches

Amazon India allegedly copied products and promoted its own versions in searches

engadget.com

Amazon India allegedly rigged search results and ripped off sellers’ products
theverge.com · 2021

Amazon allegedly used its search system and user data to gain an edge over sellers in India, according to a new report from Reuters. The report — based on internal emails, strategy plans, and other documents — outlines an ambitious plan to …

Amazon systematically used third-party sellers' data to copy products and promote them to shoppers, despite saying otherwise, according to a new report
businessinsider.com · 2021

Internal Amazon documents show leadership at the company's India marketplace developed strategies to copy competitors and sell their own products at a lower cost, according to a Wednesday report from Reuters.

The outlet viewed thousands of …

Amazon copied products and rigged search results, documents show
reuters.com · 2021

Amazon.com Inc has been repeatedly accused of knocking off products it sells on its website and of exploiting its vast trove of internal data to promote its own merchandise at the expense of other sellers. The company has denied the accusat…

Amazon India allegedly copied products and promoted its own versions in searches
engadget.com · 2021

Amazon allegedly "ran a systematic campaign" of copying other companies' products in India and gamed search results to promote its own versions. Reutersobtained thousands of pages of internal documents including emails and business plans th…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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