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Illustration by Alex Castro \/ The Verge<\/small><\/p>\nIllustration by Alex Castro \/ The Verge<\/small><\/p>\n
Amazon employees have accessed sales data from independent Marketplace sellers to help the company develop competing private-label products, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n Past Amazon employees and one current one told the WSJ<\/em> that rules barring the practice weren’t uniformly enforced. <\/em>In addition, former Amazon employees said using the sales data from sellers was “a common practice that was discussed openly in meetings they attended,” according to the report.<\/p>\n One former employee told the WSJ<\/em> they knew they were violating the policies:<\/p>\n “We knew we shouldn’t,” said one former employee who accessed the data and described a pattern of using it to launch and benefit Amazon products. “But at the same time, we are making Amazon branded products, and we want them to sell.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In a statement to The Verge, <\/em>Amazon disputed claims that the company has used private seller data to help develop its own products.<\/em><\/p>\n “Like other retailers, we look at sales and store data to provide our customers with the best possible experience,” Amazon said. “However, we strictly prohibit our employees from using non-public, seller-specific data to determine which private label products to launch. While we don’t believe these claims are accurate, we take these allegations very seriously and have launched an internal investigation.”<\/p>\n\n
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