Amazon, Walmart Face FTC Probe Over Alleged AI Shopping Assistant Misdeeds

Two U.S. senators have called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI shopping assistants over allegations that they may suppress information about U.S.-made products and fail to flag potentially fraudulent 'Made in USA' claims.

The study, led by former FTC Chair Lina Khan, found differences in how the two shopping assistants handled information about product origins. According to the study, Alexa told researchers that adding a 'Made in USA' filter would 'redirect significant sales away from their largest seller base,' referring to overseas manufacturers.

Amazon rejected the allegation that it intentionally withholds country-of-origin information from customers, stating that Alexa for Shopping directs users to product detail pages when they ask where a product was made. Walmart's Sparky AI assistant cited limited FTC enforcement against retailers and described the issue as a business decision.