In its latest step targeting a major marketplace, the European Commission sent Amazon another request for information (RFI) Friday in relation to its compliance under the bloc’s rulebook for digital services.
The development highlights areas where EU enforcers are dialing up their scrutiny of the e-commerce giant, with the bloc asking for more info about Amazon’s recommender systems, ads transparency provisions and risk assessment measures.
An earlier Commission RFI to Amazon, last November, focused on risk assessments and mitigations around the dissemination of illegal products; and the protection of fundamental rights, including in relation to its recommender systems.
A Commission spokesperson confirmed the e-commerce giant has received three RFIs in all — following a January ask for more info on how it’s providing data access for researchers.
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) puts requirements on platforms and services to abide by a series of governance standards, including in areas like content moderation.
In the case of online marketplaces the law also requires they implement measures to enable them to take action to tackle risks around the sale of illegal goods.
Larger marketplaces, such as Amazon, have an additional layer of algorithmic transparency and accountability obligations under the regime — and this is where the Commission RFIs are focused.
The additional rules have applied on Amazon since the end of August last year, following its designation by the EU as a very large online platform (VLOP) in April 2023. It’s the Commission’s job to enforce these extra obligations on VLOPs.
