European Union officials have asked Amazon.com Inc. for information about its compliance with the DSA, a piece of tech industry regulation that the bloc rolled out in 2022.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, disclosed the move today. The request marks the third time that regulatory officials in the bloc have asked Amazon for DSA-related information. If the EU identities a gap in the company’s compliance efforts, it can launch a formal probe into the matter and potentially issue fines.

The European Parliament passed the DSA, or Digital Services Act, in mid-2022. The law requires online platform operators to tackle illegal content, disinformation and other risks on their services. It also specifies that e-commerce companies such as Amazon must ensure the products on their marketplaces are safe.

A second set of requirements in the law applies only to so-called VLOPs, or very large online platforms. Those are services with at least 45 million monthly active users. Last March, the European Commission named Amazon’s marketplace as one of the platforms to which the VLOP rules apply.

The request for information that the EU sent to the company today focuses on two main items. The first is the recommendation algorithms Amazon uses to generate shopping suggestions, while the other is its advertising system.

The DSA includes a provision that specifies tech firms must be transparent about how their recommendation algorithms work. To evaluate whether Amazon meets that requirement, officials have asked it to provide information about its internal systems. The company must detail the “input factors, features, signals, information and metadata” it uses to produce recommendations.

Recommendation algorithms in platforms with over 45 million monthly active users must meet additional requirements. In particular, consumers have to be given a way to opt out of offers that are generated based on their personal data. In their request for information, EU officials asked Amazon to detail its compliance with that requirement.

The second focus of the request is the company’s advertising system. Under the DSA, Amazon must maintain a library of the ads that online merchants run on its e-commerce marketplace. The EU has asked the company to provide information about the “development, deployment, testing and maintenance” of the ad library’s interface as well as an assessment of potential risks to users.

Amazon must submit the requested records by July 26. In its announcement of the information request today, the European Commission specified that a formal DSA investigation could potentially follow. Breaches of the law can carry fines equal to up to 6% of a company’s annual worldwide revenue.

Amazon said in a statement that “we are reviewing this request and working closely with the European Commission. Amazon shares the goal of the European Commission to create a safe, predictable and trusted shopping environment.”

In January, the European Commission sent the company another request for information focused on its transparency practices. Last November, officials asked Amazon to detail the steps it’s taking to block the spread of illegal products on its e-commerce marketplace.

Photo: Amazon