For those selling on Amazon in Japan, it is compulsory to subscribe to a Professional Plan and pay a monthly fee of 5390 yen in order to qualify as a ‘Buy Box’ winner for the items they are selling. However, these sellers are bound by uncertain terms and conditions that depend solely on the decisions of Amazon, which claims there is no guarantee it will choose a seller’s items for the ‘Buy Box’.
On 8 February 2024, two Amazon.com customers filed lawsuits against Amazon on the grounds that ‘Amazon claims to be a “customer-centric” company that works to offer the lowest prices to its customers’; however, in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Amazon employs a deceptive scheme to keep its profits – and consumer prices – high. Specifically, it uses a biased algorithm to determine which offers shoppers will see, and therefore which sellers they will buy from, when they search for items on Amazon. Consequently, US customers sought ‘to enjoin further unfair and fraudulent acts or practices by Amazon, recover damages, and obtain all other relief’.
Furthermore, Amazon employs such unfair and fraudulent acts or practices not only in the US but also in Japan, where the same operating system has been running.
For instance, when customers search for ‘Segreta Shampoo’ in the search bar, the cheapest item is displayed as ‘No featured offers available’. Therefore, at first glance, it seems the item is not available for purchase. Consequently, 24 sellers seeking to sell the same item are paying Professional Seller fees in the expectation that their item will be chosen as the Buy Box winner; however, because none of the sellers meet all of Amazon’s expectations, their items cannot be displayed to consumers.
[Case study: Segreta Shampoo Refill]Read about this in more detail: Claimant’s Brief 14 (pp.11-25)
