Government legislation! Requires Amazon to disclose the A9 algorithm!

If there is anything attractive about Amazon's European site, it may be that there are few competitions and high unit prices in the past. However, this year, the European site has a big advantage - European governments have begun to limit Amazon's privileges for third-party sellers.

Europe was the first to restrict Amazon’s abuse of rights against sellers, but soon there was a second site that wanted to take action against Amazon, and it was this year’s dark horse site - Japan.

In October, Japan's Fair Trade Commission launched an investigation and evidence collection on Amazon and other e-commerce platforms, intending to legislate to require these platforms to make their algorithms transparent. The voting and opinion collection process for the relevant legislation was completed at the beginning of this month.

What restrictions should be imposed on Amazon?

We all know that Amazon's A9 algorithm displays products to consumers based on product relevance and product performance (Reviews, sales, etc.).

But what factors does A9 consider? What will affect the ranking of your products? Amazon has not announced these specific things at all. It is up to the sellers to explore, test and summarize the rules on their own.

Maybe everyone has gotten used to it and thinks it is normal for Amazon not to disclose the details of the A9 algorithm. But we all know that such algorithm opacity is definitely not fair. Amazon can change the algorithm at will to give better positions to self-operated products or products that spend money on advertising, and sellers will not even know that the algorithm has been tilted.

But now it is different. The Fair Trade Commission believes that Amazon's behavior of "not disclosing its algorithm and arbitrarily manipulating product rankings and display positions" violates the fairness and transparency provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Law. The Commission will make certain adjustments to the existing regulations to improve their applicability and scope of application to the current e-commerce field.

▲Some amendments to the Anti-Monopoly Law

The government requires Amazon to disclose the specific content and effectiveness mechanism of the A9 algorithm. This is certainly not just a matter of disclosure. Regarding the unfairness of the search ranking algorithm, the relevant laws and regulations must have other restrictions, preventing Amazon from tampering with the algorithm.

Exposing the impact of algorithms on our sellers

If the A9 algorithm can be made public, even if only part of it is made public, it will be of great reference value to our operations. By mastering the real push mechanism of A9, we can optimize products in a targeted manner and display listings in a more advanced position.

What is even more beneficial to us is that after the algorithm is made public, relevant government agencies can supervise the existing algorithm and subsequent changes, and order Amazon to rectify those push mechanisms that are unfair to third-party sellers.

When we sellers open stores and operate on Amazon, we must abide by Amazon's regulations and be supervised and managed by Amazon. We sellers have no say in whether Amazon's own rules are reasonable or whether its supervision is fair, especially when Amazon has its own products competing with third-party sellers. Amazon certainly cannot treat everyone equally.

At this time, supervision from a powerful external force becomes particularly important, so that when we encounter unfair treatment from Amazon, we will have a channel to appeal and recover our deserved rights.

This is the current situation on the European site. Amazon is regulated by government agencies and its rights over sellers are restricted. For example, a seller’s store must be closed with 30 days’ notice. In order for Amazon to implement the relevant restrictions, Amazon is also required to change its service agreement with sellers.

Now the Japanese site is even better. It not only accepts feedback and complaints from sellers, but also directly supervises Amazon's push mechanism to eliminate unfair phenomena on e-commerce platforms from the root , such as the situation in which self-operated products occupy the prime position in searches that we have reported before.

If this can really be achieved, it will be a blessing for all Amazon sellers. However, it is equivalent to asking the brother-in-law to hand over his livelihood. I believe Amazon will never surrender.

At present, the process of revising relevant regulations has completed the stage of soliciting opinions, and the specific content of the revision is expected to be released as an amendment this year. As for how Amazon will respond, we sellers can wait and see. At present, if we want to display the product in a more forward position, we still need to optimize keywords and titles based on past experience. I have collected an optimization tips package for everyone. Students can scan the QR code below to find me to receive it.

PS. If you want to join the seller discussion group, you can also private message me to let me add you to the group