To help make customers “informed shopping decisions”, from September 1, 2020, Amazon US will show the seller’s business name and address on their Amazon.com Seller Profile page, the company announced on Wednesday. For individuals, the page will show their individual name and address. Sellers were already required to give this information to Amazon, now they have to display it for the customers as well. Sellers can choose to add more information if they so wish but Amazon has advised them to not include an email address to prevent spam and abuse; instead they should rely on Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging system for electronic communication with customers. The company already required this in Europe, Japan and Mexico. Marketplace Pulse first reported this development. It is not clear if displaying the seller’s physical address will suffice as a country of origin disclosure that the Department of Homeland Security had recommended in January, or if that would be required for each product listing. It is also not clear if Amazon has access to the messages exchanged on the Buyer-Seller messaging system. If the company has access to the content of these messages, it could be amassing a wealth of customer feedback that it could use to build its competing products. We have reached out to the company for more information. In April, the Wall Street Journal had reported that Amazon, in violation of its stated policies, had used data about independent sellers to develop competing products, prompting American lawmakers to allege that Amazon might…
