Amazon bans Chinese sellers with $1 billion revenue over 'manipulating customer feedbacks'

Amazon on Friday, Sept. 10, blocked over a dozen Chinese sellers on the platform stating “suspicious behaviour” and alleged malpractices with respect to the customers’ feedback. It included two of the biggest electronics Amazon-native brands based out of China among the firms that generated total sales revenue exceeding $1 billion. Amazon blocked the listings for a major Shenzhen-based electronics vendor named Aukey, Mpow run by ByteDance, and Xiaomi-backed consumer product firm Patozon among many other leading sellers showing “currently unavailable”, China’s state-run media reported.

In a statement released by Amazon, it was alleged that the sellers in Beijing had been engaging in inappropriate practices such as fake reviews and inflating sales numbers to gain more profits, which violates Amazon standards. The retail firm owned by US’ Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, took the sweeping measure after a shocking report from the antivirus site SafetyDetectives revealed that Chinese brands organized fake reviews scams on Amazon and bluffed the customers. The agency listed names of nearly 200,000 users and vendors that it alleged, were involved in fake product review schemes to dupe the buyers. The Chinese sellers ran the fake orders, left positive reviews from dozens of ghost Amazon accounts that they operated on the platform to influence the customers.

Amazon suspended up to 50,000 Chinese sellers citing "improper use of review functions", "soliciting fake reviews," and "manipulating reviews by giving gift cards."

'Paying for the fake reviews..'

As many as 50,000 Chinese merchant accounts have been suspended since Amazon's move that started in May, according to Shenzhen Cross-border E-commerce Association. This has incurred the Chinese cross-border e-commerce huge losses amounting to 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion), China’s state government mouthpiece Global Times reported. A formal probe was ordered by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the US against the Chinese sellers on Google and Amazon after the shocking revelation was made by the SafetyDetectives.

The latter banned top Chinese merchants from trading on the site for paying for fake reviews and other scams. Following Amazon’s decision, Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce convened an emergency meeting with 10 leading cross-border e-commerce enterprises to discuss the impact of Amazon’s suspension on local cross-border e-commerce, according to China’s Security Times. The US-based company’s suspension has triggered the Chinese retailers to explore their own independent websites and mediums for getting the sellers onboard.