Report: Amazon made $1B with secret algorithm for spiking prices Internet-wide::Report reveals details about Amazon’s secret algorithm redacted in FTC complaint.

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    159 months ago

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    Last week, the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon, alleging that the online retailer was illegally maintaining a monopoly.

    People familiar with the FTC’s allegations in the complaint told the Journal that it all started when Amazon developed an algorithm code-named “Project Nessie.”

    The controversial algorithm was allegedly used for years and helped Amazon to “improve its profits on items across shopping categories” and “led competitors to raise their prices and charge customers more,” the WSJ reported.

    FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar told the WSJ that the agency wants more public access to redacted information in the complaint and continues to "call on Amazon to move swiftly to remove the redactions and allow the American public to see the full scope of what we allege are their illegal monopolistic practices.”

    In a press release, the FTC confirmed that it intends to prove that Amazon is “stifling competition on price,” among other alleged consumer harms.

    “Seldom in the history of US antitrust law has one case had the potential to do so much good for so many people,” John Newman, the deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said.


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