14 DAY TRIAL // Following an investigation reported by The Wall Street Journal regarding alleged bribes and data leaks with Amazon employees behind, the e-commerce company today fired multiple employees suspected of providing insider info to independent merchants.
The employees fired by Amazon during the last few days were part of multiple U.S. and India subsidiaries, and they were followed by the deletion of thousands of suspicious reviews designed to promote products from large numbers of bad reputation merchants.
“If bad actors abuse our systems, we take swift action, including terminating their selling accounts, deleting reviews, withholding funds, taking legal action and working with law enforcement,” told an Amazon spokeswoman to The Wall Street Journal.
Furthermore, she also stated that Amazon is also conducting an investigation and machine learning-based tools to make sure that no other individuals will be able to go after reputable sellers and harm their reputation using dishonest techniques.
According to some sources, multiple Chinese and Indian Amazon employees have stated that the amount of access they have to internal product information databases was severely restricted, most probably as a direct consequence of the recent incidents.
Legal action one of the results stemming from rigging Amazon's system
Amazon stated that "We have strict policies and a Code of Business Conduct & Ethics in place for our employees. We implement sophisticated systems to restrict and audit access to information."
"We hold our employees to a high ethical standard and anyone in violation of our Code faces discipline, including termination and potential legal and criminal penalties," added Amazon.
Regarding the actors who tried to rig the Amazon system, the company says there is zero tolerance against such exploits, and it will take immediate action against them, going from selling accounts termination, withholding funds, deleting reviews, as well as taking legal action.
"An estimated three million merchants sell products on Amazon, according to e-commerce data firm Marketplace Pulse," says The Journal.
Also, "This year, U.S. shoppers are on track to spend $124.1 billion online, 15% more than last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Roughly half that spending takes place on Amazon, according to analyst estimates."