EU Commission takes Amazon to task over recommendation systems
The EU Commission is demanding information from Amazon about measures that the online retail giant has taken to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The EU Commission is demanding detailed information on the processes and interfaces of Amazon stores.
(Image: dpa, Ronny Hartmann/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa)
On Friday, the EU Commission sent a request for information to Amazon under the Digital Services Act. In it, it is asking the US company to provide more information about the measures it has taken to implement DSA. In particular, it concerns the provisions of the Platform Basic Law on the transparency of algorithmic recommendation systems and their parameters. The online retail giant is to explain how it complies with the requirements of the DSA regarding the ad register and reporting on the assessment of risks. Amazon must submit the required information by July 26.
In the case of recommendation systems, the formal request is primarily aimed at the input factors, functions, signals, information and metadata used for this purpose, according to a statement from the Commission. In addition, the platform operator must make clear the options it offers users to opt out of the creation of personality profiles for the algorithmic service through tracking. The measures are based on the rules of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Amazon does not want to be a platform in the DSA sense
Amazon must also inform the Brussels government institution about the design, development, provision, testing and maintenance of the online interface of the Amazon Store advertising archive. The company had tried to prevent this in court. It argued that the requirement would violate its own fundamental rights to data protection and freedom to conduct a business. In addition, the DSA was intended to contain other business models. The company joined a similar lawsuit brought by Zalando. On its own platform, there is no "systemic risk" of the distribution of harmful or illegal content by third parties. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected this application on the grounds that the requested interim legal protection would delay the effect of the Platform Act "possibly by several years".
The Commission will then evaluate the responses and determine the next steps on this basis. This could result in the formal initiation of proceedings for violations of the DSA. This would result in severe sanctions with fines of up to 6 percent of annual turnover. Initially, the executive authority may also impose fines for incorrect, incomplete or misleading information in the responses to the request for information. Amazon has announced that it intends to work closely with the Commission. The DSA watchdog has already sent numerous similar requests to other covered platforms and initiated initial proceedings. Just a week ago, the Commission made similar requests to the Chinese e-commerce giants Temu and Shein.
(psz)
