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Amazon faces more EU scrutiny over transparency of its advertisements, recommender algorithms

Ripples Nigeria 2024/10/5

American multinational technology company Amazon faces more scrutiny from the European Union over the transparency of its featured advertisements and recommender algorithms.

The EU filed Amazon another request for information (RFI) on Friday regarding its compliance with the bloc’s digital laws, in what is likely its most aggressive move yet against a major marketplace.

The development demonstrates the areas in which EU regulators are intensifying their examination of the behemoth of e-commerce, as the bloc has requested additional information regarding Amazon’s risk assessment protocols, ad transparency policies, and recommender systems.

Platforms and services are required by the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) to adhere to a number of governance rules, including those pertaining to content moderation.

The DSA requires VLOPs to both proactively assess systemic risks that might arise on their platforms and take steps to mitigate issues. Platforms also need to document their compliance process.

“In particular, Amazon 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,” the EU wrote. “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.”

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