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The relevant bit of the article: >The Court of Justice said Google’s practice of favoring its own shopping search results over rival services “was discriminato

The relevant bit of the article: >The Court of Justice said Google’s practice of favoring its own shopping search results over rival services “was discriminatory.” The ruling can't be appealed. >Judges said that EU law forbids behavior that prevents “the maintenance or growth of competition in a market in which the degree of competition is already weakened, precisely because of the presence of one or more undertakings in a dominant position.”

diggan 2y ago
Gonna be interesting to see if Amazon also gets hit by this very same thing as they seem to push their "Amazon Basics" brand above competitors too in their "market place".
- CharlieDigital 2y ago
  Might be a distinction here because Google doesn't actually sell the products whereas Amazon is the actual retailer. Google is promoting their link to the product -- potentially even over the exact same retailer's direct link -- to take a cut.
- nabla9 2y ago
  EU already hit Amazon in 2018 and Amazon settled in 2022 to stop pushing their own products above competitors using unfair tactics. (those rules only only apply to online shoppers inside EU) In the settlement Amazon is put into a probation for 5 years. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_4522 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... --- With respect to the marketplace seller data, Amazon commits to refrain from using non-public data relating to, or derived from, the activities of independent sellers on its marketplace, for its retail business that competes with those sellers. This would apply to both Amazon's automated tools and employees that could cross-use the data from Amazon Marketplace, for the purposes of retail decisions. The relevant data would cover both individual and aggregate data, such as sales terms, revenues, shipments, inventory related information, consumer visit data or seller performance on the platform. Amazon commits not to use such data for the purposes of selling branded goods as well as its private label products. In relation to the Buy Box Amazon commits: - to apply equal treatment to all sellers when ranking their offers for the purposes of the selection of the winner of the Buy Box; - and in addition, to display a second competing offer to the Buy Box winner if there is a second offer that is sufficiently differentiated from the first one on price and/or delivery. Both offers will display the same descriptive information and provide for the same purchasing experience. This will enhance consumer choice. Lastly, regarding Prime Amazon commits: - to set non-discriminatory conditions and criteria for the qualification of marketplace sellers and offers to Prime; - to allow Prime sellers to freely choose any carrier for their logistics and delivery services and negotiate terms directly with the carrier of their choice; - not to use any information obtained through Prime about the terms and performance of third-party carriers, for its own logistics services. This is to ensure that carriers' data is not flowing directly to Amazon's competing logistics services. The commitments would remain in force for five years. Their implementation would be monitored by a monitoring trustee who would report regularly to the Commission.
  - diggan 2y ago
    > Amazon settled in 2022 to stop pushing their own products above competitors Eh, I hope they re-investigate then because it still happens in September 2024, even inside EU.
    - sitkack 2y ago
      If you can document and publish, that would be ideal.
      - diggan 2y ago
        Just one quick example from Spanish Amazon: https://i.imgur.com/XnR6BrF.png https://i.imgur.com/XnR6BrF.png Maybe a better example where the search is for "e-book color" and the listing for the Paperwhite doesn't match either "e-book" or "color", so it's not ranking high because it's matching the search terms well with the titles but seemingly because of something else: https://i.imgur.com/BoUjPPv.png https://i.imgur.com/BoUjPPv.png
        nickff 2y ago
        That item is the lowest cost of the options depicted, and has more reviews (which are proportional to sales) than the rest combined. I think most algorithms would put it on top.
        ethbr1 2y ago
        Ah yes, the "ignore what I asked for, push me what sells the best" search algorithms.
        diggan 2y ago
        The results for the search "funda" are all smartphone or tablet covers, or covers for laptop. Except for that one Amazon Basics product which is a cover/protector for hard-drives. That doesn't seem at least a tiny bit odd to you?
- tzs 2y ago
  How about non-online stores? In the US many major chain stores have their own brands. For example in grocery stores Safeway has their Signature Select brand, and Walmart has Great Value. In electronics Best Buy has Insignia, and Walmart has Onn. Do major EU retailers do the same?

diggan 2y ago

Gonna be interesting to see if Amazon also gets hit by this very same thing as they seem to push their "Amazon Basics" brand above competitors too in their "market place".

CharlieDigital 2y ago
Might be a distinction here because Google doesn't actually sell the products whereas Amazon is the actual retailer. Google is promoting their link to the product -- potentially even over the exact same retailer's direct link -- to take a cut.
nabla9 2y ago
EU already hit Amazon in 2018 and Amazon settled in 2022 to stop pushing their own products above competitors using unfair tactics. (those rules only only apply to online shoppers inside EU) In the settlement Amazon is put into a probation for 5 years. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_4522 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... --- With respect to the marketplace seller data, Amazon commits to refrain from using non-public data relating to, or derived from, the activities of independent sellers on its marketplace, for its retail business that competes with those sellers. This would apply to both Amazon's automated tools and employees that could cross-use the data from Amazon Marketplace, for the purposes of retail decisions. The relevant data would cover both individual and aggregate data, such as sales terms, revenues, shipments, inventory related information, consumer visit data or seller performance on the platform. Amazon commits not to use such data for the purposes of selling branded goods as well as its private label products. In relation to the Buy Box Amazon commits: - to apply equal treatment to all sellers when ranking their offers for the purposes of the selection of the winner of the Buy Box; - and in addition, to display a second competing offer to the Buy Box winner if there is a second offer that is sufficiently differentiated from the first one on price and/or delivery. Both offers will display the same descriptive information and provide for the same purchasing experience. This will enhance consumer choice. Lastly, regarding Prime Amazon commits: - to set non-discriminatory conditions and criteria for the qualification of marketplace sellers and offers to Prime; - to allow Prime sellers to freely choose any carrier for their logistics and delivery services and negotiate terms directly with the carrier of their choice; - not to use any information obtained through Prime about the terms and performance of third-party carriers, for its own logistics services. This is to ensure that carriers' data is not flowing directly to Amazon's competing logistics services. The commitments would remain in force for five years. Their implementation would be monitored by a monitoring trustee who would report regularly to the Commission.
- diggan 2y ago
  > Amazon settled in 2022 to stop pushing their own products above competitors Eh, I hope they re-investigate then because it still happens in September 2024, even inside EU.
  - sitkack 2y ago
    If you can document and publish, that would be ideal.
    - diggan 2y ago
      Just one quick example from Spanish Amazon: https://i.imgur.com/XnR6BrF.png https://i.imgur.com/XnR6BrF.png Maybe a better example where the search is for "e-book color" and the listing for the Paperwhite doesn't match either "e-book" or "color", so it's not ranking high because it's matching the search terms well with the titles but seemingly because of something else: https://i.imgur.com/BoUjPPv.png https://i.imgur.com/BoUjPPv.png
      - nickff 2y ago
        That item is the lowest cost of the options depicted, and has more reviews (which are proportional to sales) than the rest combined. I think most algorithms would put it on top.
        ethbr1 2y ago
        Ah yes, the "ignore what I asked for, push me what sells the best" search algorithms.
        diggan 2y ago
        The results for the search "funda" are all smartphone or tablet covers, or covers for laptop. Except for that one Amazon Basics product which is a cover/protector for hard-drives. That doesn't seem at least a tiny bit odd to you?
tzs 2y ago
How about non-online stores? In the US many major chain stores have their own brands. For example in grocery stores Safeway has their Signature Select brand, and Walmart has Great Value. In electronics Best Buy has Insignia, and Walmart has Onn. Do major EU retailers do the same?