Amazon has launched an investigation over claims that some employees have offered to leak confidential information and delete negative product reviews in exchange for money.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon staff members are sharing internal data that independent merchants can use to try to get higher rankings.
The article mentioned the issue seems to be prominent in China and an Amazon spokeswoman told CNN that the company has launched an investigation into the claims.
Amazon has “sophisticated systems to restrict and audit access to information,” the company spokeswoman said, adding that it would also punish sellers who break its rules.
“We have zero tolerance for abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behavior, we will take swift action against them, including terminating their selling accounts, deleting reviews, withholding funds, and taking legal action,” she said.
In 2015 the company had similar problems when they sued more than 1,000 people who were "misleading Amazon's customers" by selling fake reviews.