Complaints flood in that Amazon's AI shopping tool 'Buy for Me' introduces its own products on Amazon without permission and displays incorrect descriptions



Amazon's '

Buy for Me ' trial feature, which allows some US users to purchase products from other brand websites on their behalf within the app, has raised serious concerns from many small businesses, who claim that information is collected and posted without prior consent, and that product descriptions and images are sometimes incorrect.

Brands say Amazon's 'Buy for Me' is listing products without permission
https://www.modernretail.co/technology/brands-are-upset-that-buy-for-me-is-featuring-their-products-on-amazon-without-permission/

Amazon's AI shopping tool sparks backlash from some online retailers
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/06/amazons-ai-shopping-tool-sparks-backlash-from-some-online-retailers.html

Amazon's 'Buy for me' feature, which uses AI agents to purchase products directly from other companies' sites on behalf of customers, is advertised as a way to 'find anything, even if it's not on Amazon.' However, many businesses have complained that their products are being listed without their permission.

Angie Chua, CEO of Bobo Design Studio, said she received orders for products not sold on Amazon from an Amazon address. Chua's investigation revealed that more than 180 businesses using Shopify, WooCommerce, and other platforms had been listed without permission. She also found that product pages displayed on Amazon were mistakenly displaying images of products that were never sold. She also reported receiving orders for out-of-stock products or products that were no longer available.


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Stock Catalog

Chua posted a video on Instagram criticizing Amazon for scraping product information from small business websites without their permission and displaying it on its app. The short video has garnered approximately 16,000 likes at the time of writing.




Artist Sammy Golin reported that a password-protected vendor page was scraped, exposing confidential wholesale prices to the public. Not only does this expose wholesale prices to the public, it also poses tax risks for brands, as orders are placed without verifying tax-exempt documents.

Amanda Stewart, founder of children's clothing brand Mochi Kids, said she was surprised to find that 4,000 of her products were listed without her permission, despite intentionally avoiding sales on Amazon. As a result, Stewart was accused of violating terms of sale by her wholesale partner, who has a contract prohibiting her from selling on Amazon. Even after removing the products from Amazon, she encountered problems with incomplete product data remaining in search engines.


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Amazon explains that AI tools like 'Buy for Me' are experimental attempts to help customers discover new brands and increase sales for businesses. Sellers can opt out at any time by contacting the designated email address, and Amazon claims it does not take a commission from purchases made through 'Buy for Me.'

Meanwhile, Amazon has severely restricted third parties like Meta, Google, and Perplexity from scraping its site, and is suing Perplexity in particular over its AI agents that make purchases on behalf of customers.

Amazon threatens AI browser Perplexity with legal action to stop its AI agents from browsing the web - GIGAZINE



Small businesses have criticized Amazon for its double standards, which prohibits other companies from scraping their data while still pulling information from other sites. Chelsea Ward, founder of Los Angeles-based stationery brand Sketchy Notions, said, 'Amazon's AI tools are causing unnecessary stress for small businesses like us. Amazon knows that we have very little room to fight back.'

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in AI,   Web Service, Posted by log1i_yk