Amazon's division in India participated in copying products and manipulated search results in favor of its products.
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«India's Private Brands Program» describes how the sales data of the "reference brands" will be analyzed and the plan was to copy those brands.
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Amazon employees noticed a surge in returns of shirts produced by a private clothing brand. The problem was the size; the team found the best-selling brand and changed the size of the product.
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Amazon's Indian teams also worked on promoting products under private trademarks in search queries. This gave Amazon guarantees that new products would be second or third in search results.
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Amazon's top management, including Diego Piacentini and Russell Grandinetti, knew about business practices in India. Piacentini reported it to the founder, Jeff Bezos, and Grandinetti was part of a team of key executives overseen by CEO Andy Iasi.
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Amazon contradicts previous reports about the development of its products. For many years, Amazon has been launching products under its own brand – Amazon Basics.
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Amazon executives, including Bezos, have repeatedly argued that using third-party sellers' data to create future products is contrary to company policy. Amazon has promised to take action if violations are found.