Amazon Faces European Commission Scrutiny Under Digital Services Act Over Recommender Algorithms, Ads Transparency

The European Commission on Friday sent e-commerce giant Amazon a request for information (RFI) under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Amazon Logo (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

London, July 5: The European Commission on Friday sent e-commerce giant Amazon a request for information (RFI) under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It has asked the Jeff Bezos-founded behemoth to provide more information on the measures the platform has taken to comply with the DSA obligations related to the transparency of recommender systems and their parameters, as well as to the provisions on maintaining an ad repository and its risk assessment report.

In particular, the tech giant is asked to provide detailed information on its compliance with the provisions "concerning transparency of the recommender systems, the input factors, features, signals, information and metadata applied for such systems and options offered to users to opt out of being profiled for the recommender systems". Amazon Valuation Cross USD 2 Trillion Mark for First Time Due to Adoption of AI, Making It Fifth Most Valued Tech Company From US.

The company also has to provide more information on the design, development, deployment, testing and maintenance of the online interface of Amazon Store's Ad Library and supporting documents regarding its risk assessment report.

"Amazon must provide the requested information by July 26, 2024. Based on the assessment of the replies, the Commission will assess the next steps. This could entail the formal opening of proceedings pursuant to Article 66 of the DSA," the Commission said. Moreover, it mentioned that it can impose fines for incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information in response to RFIs under Article 74 (2) of the DSA. European Union Finds Meta’s ‘Pay or Consent’ Model Fails To Comply With Digital Markets Act.

In case of failure to reply, the Commission may issue a formal request by decision. "In this case, failure to reply by the deadline could lead to the imposition of periodic penalty payments," it stated.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 06, 2024 01:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).

Share Now

Share Now