Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky can catch mismatches between made-in-USA labels and contradictory details in the listing, but neither retailer uses that ability to police them, according to a study from Lina Khan's Center for Law and the Economy at Columbia.
When asked why fakes persist, Alexa told researchers that doing nothing stays easier until the harm to U.S. brands carries a cost for Amazon in money, regulation, or reputation. Sparky pointed to the FTC enforcing origin rules against manufacturers rather than retailers, then called that “a business calculation, not a legal justification.” Well, at least they're honest!
Alexa also told Wall Street Journal testers that it couldn't access made-in-USA data, but then produced a list once the prompt was reworded. Khan says that's the pattern, with the assistants hiding American-made products when shoppers search for them and mislabeling imported ones, which she calls a business choice to promote foreign suppliers.
Walmart didn't immediately comment, but an Amazon spokesperson said:
“Country-of-origin information, when available, is currently displayed on product detail pages, and we're continually working to improve Alexa for Shopping's ability to accurately provide this information to make it even more accessible for customers.”
Why does all this matter?
FTC rules require products advertised as “Made in USA” to be “all or virtually all” made domestically, and last year the FTC pushed Amazon and Walmart to crack down on false “Made in USA” claims. Apparently, their AI is not doing a great job about it yet though.
Shoutout to former FTC Chair Lina Khan for continuing to be awesome and fighting to protect U.S. consumers, even after her tenure at the FTC came to an end.
