Small business owners across the country are pushing back against Amazon's AI shopping tools, saying the company lists their products without permission.

“I typed in YamzWorld into the Amazon app and lo and behold there were all my products there with my pictures from my website as well,” Montes-Tarazas said.

While he receives payment for sales, Montes-Tarazas said the arrangement strips away his ability to build direct customer relationships.

“I do get the sale and I do get the money, but customers never get to interact with my website, they have no ability to sign up for my mailing list. They have no idea who I am as an artist or what I stand for,” Montes-Tarazas said.

  • VitoRobles@lemmy.todayEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    Ah this is how GrubHub, Uber eats, and other food delivery operated during the pandemic! They literally pretended like restaurants were on board, called in the order themselves, sent freelancers and then skimmed off the top.

    It was so destructive to many restaurants that they were forced to change. Bad delivery drivers would tank their Google/Yelp reviews. Many created a custom window/spot for food delivery because they wouldn’t know which were real call-ins vs food delivery.

    Food delivery won because of cheating.

    And Amazon is doing the same.

  • ProfessorScience@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Could he not put terms of use on his website prohibiting the use by AI agents, and sue Amazon if they don’t comply?

    • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Filing a suit against Amazon… which attorney is going to take that case, and how much money would you need to pay them? 😕

        • FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Depends though. If they think they’re guilty but that it’ll be impractical to prove it if they delay the case in court for one to two business centuries, they’ll do it