Review finds Amazon is using the top-left slot of its search results pages, a premier bid slot for brands, to promote its private labels during the pandemic
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published. Tweets: @cobrapost , @ctmirror , @patrick_hruby , @mdudas , and @propublica Tweets: @cobrapost : Amazon's New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First, Raising Anti Trust Issues. “This is madness. They're putting their own product right in the front of the line.” https://www.propublica.org/... Connecticut Mirror / @ctmirror : Amazon's dedicating of prime positions to its own brands could be viewed under U.S. law as “exclusionary conduct” — which, along with proving a company has substantial market power, is a key element of antitrust cases. https://ctmirror.org/... Patrick Hruby / @patrick_hruby : Totally unforseeable plot twist https://twitter.com/... Mike Dudas / @mdudas : I'm unclear how Amazon placing its private label products in the top slot is any different than grocers doing the same in-store. And the term “antitrust” is thrown around far too freely. https://www.propublica.org/... @propublica : Brands have long been able to bid for the premier slot at the top left of Amazon's listings, but during the pandemic the online retailer has begun using this position for its private-label items, raising antitrust concerns. https://www.propublica.org/...