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. Asked why fakes persist, Alexa told researchers that doing nothing stays easier until the harm to US 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.” Alexa also told WSJ testers it couldn't access made-in-USA data, then produced a list once the prompt was reworded. Amazon disputes the conclusions and says origin details appear on product pages when sellers supply them.
