As tech giants face growing scrutiny over their market power, Amazon has quietly removed some of the most aggressive promotional spots for so-called"private label" products on its web site.
However, in recent weeks, Amazon has significantly scaled down or relocated on-site promotions for its private label products, according to multiple Amazon sellers and consultants. In an email statement to CNBC, Amazon's representative said the spots were part of a broader experiment and that the company constantly tests different types of product placements throughout the year.
How Amazon and other tech giants use their market power to gain an unfair advantage over smaller competitors is poised to become a more contentious issue going forward, and one of the key discussion points for the presidential election next year.