Amazon examines claims that employees remove bad reviews for money

Amazon began investigating reports that some of its employees leaked information about their company in exchange for bribes, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The report says Amazon employees have disclosed sales information, removed negative reviews, and offered reviewers email addresses in exchange for money from third-party Amazon sellers. Generally, these interactions have been facilitated by intermediaries who are looking for Amazon employees willing to offer such services.

While some cases have been traced back to US employees, the practice would be prevalent in China among Amazon's Chinese employees and local third-party sellers. Amazon employees in China may decide to participate because their salaries are quite low and Chinese sellers can pay for information that can help them better position their merchandise on Amazon or contact those who have left comments. negatives on products.

"We impose on our employees high ethical standards and anyone who violates our Code faces disciplinary action, including lay-offs and potential legal and criminal penalties," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. "We have a zero tolerance for the abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behavior, we will quickly take steps to end it, remove the accounts, remove the funds and start prosecution. "

according to The Wall Street Journal & # 39; s report, payments to Amazon employees can range from $ 80 to $ 2,000, depending on the service. Selling information that sellers can pay includes an overview of buyer habits as well as keywords used in product searches. With this information, sellers can try to make their items more attractive to buyers or change their listings to try to post them on the first page of a product search.

Employees would have been paid to remove negative product reviews and sellers could pay to obtain email addresses from customers who have left negative reviews so sellers can offer discounts or free products in exchange for positive reviews.

The middlemen of these transactions are called brokers and they often find employees of Amazon via the WeChat Chinese chat application. Brokers ask if employees want to offer such services in cash and then facilitate interactions between employees and third-party sellers.

It is difficult to determine how widespread this practice is – there are over two million third-party sellers on Amazon and they account for more than half of the units sold on the site. Amazon has made every effort to attract new vendors to its site, but the volume of third-party sellers (especially in China) will complicate the company's task of eliminating all instances of employee corruption. Third-party sellers can find the sales environment even more difficult, not only because of the number of sellers on Amazon, but also because of those who pay Amazon employees to get a benefit.

In addition to this problem, Amazon had to fight against fake magazines and counterfeits on its platform. False product reviews still appear on Amazon, even after the company banned incentive reviews – those issued by buyers to whom free or discounted products were distributed.

Companies have raised their voices against Amazon, saying the retail giant should do more to prevent the sale of counterfeit products on its platform. Amazon refuted them, stating earlier this year that it has a 24-hour team working against counterfeit products and that it uses machine learning technology and automated services to detect copyright infringement. .