Eropean commission probes Amazon company over Recommendation system.

 

The European commission has sent a request for information to Amazon on measures taken to comply with a landmark EU law on content moderation, the Digital Service Act (DSA), according to

a press release on Friday July 5th.

It's the latest in similar requests, accusations, and fines from the EU executive against big Tech platforms under the DSA and the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Amazon has been asked to provide detailed information on the transparency of it's recommendation systems, including data inputs, and opt-out options offered to users who don't want to be profiled by their algorithms, by 26 July, the press release said.

Amazon is also asked to answer questions on it's store Ad library,including a risk assessment report. The library provides EU users "with the ability to query data related to advertisement and affiliate marketing content," according to a company website.

The firm is "reviewing" the requests and is working closely with the commission, an Amazon spokesperson told  Euractiv on Friday.

The commission will assess it's next step based on the company's reply. Since Amazon, is a designated Very Large Online Platform (VLOP), which means they count over 45 million users in Europe, consequences which may include fine of up to 6%  of the Company global annual revenue. Amazon recorded over $574.8 billion (€530.8 billion) in net sales in 2023.

Just a week ago, the commission sent similar requests to other E-commerce platforms like Temu and Shein.

Amazon had tried to dismiss it's DSA obligation to make it's ads repository publicly available, in the court of Justice of the EU. But the court, on 27 march  decided against Amazon.