Tech giant Amazon is carrying out an investigation in claims of bribery with some of its employees. Some of the employees are giving out internal data to people procuring their products on their site with aim to increase their sales and in return they pay for the service. Almost 50% of the products sold by Amazon are deduced from third-party sellers. These vendors are in compliance with Amazon’s own-service. The tech company started internal investigation way back in May. Amazon became the latest trillion dollar firm in market capitalization after Apple. The practice is very common in China and it violates the company’s policy. The illegal practice has continued to skyrocket in China as many of the company’s employees are paid a very small token. The brokers and the company employees are using We Chat to pass information and connect with other people.
Amazon employees involved in the business are offering the sale of data, deleting negative email addresses and restoring banned accounts. In return they are paid between $80 and $2,000, as per the investigation. Amazon confirmed that it was conducting investigation into the matter. ‘’The company has a high standards of ethics and integrity and anyone found guilty of violating the code of conduct will be punished, including legal penalties, job termination and criminal justices’’ the company said. The company adds that they have zero tolerance of abuse of the system and anyone found violating or engaging in the behavior, will be punished by having their selling accounts closed, having reviews deleted, withholding the funds in their accounts and taking legal action against them.
The investigation is not only conducted in China but also in the UK and the United States where some employees are into the illegal practice. Eric Broussard, the online company vice president said that investigation is still underway and it has improved the way the company conducts business in China. The online company has an automated ranking system, based on number of customers reviewing the product, quality of the product and the number of sales it has made. Some sellers are avoiding the process by paying the company employers who play a game with the online system by creating a fake review in the product. Some brokers also demand a five star review on their product. Amazon’s business in China was at the peak that most people had come up with new tricks that helped increase sales and remove all negative reviews that it might have had at a cheaper price.