Just like how Google has faced criticisms for the way it displays its search results, it seems that this is an issue that Amazon has run into as well, so much so that they’re being taken to court over the way the company displays its search results for products. The company taking Amazon to court is MTM, a watchmaker known for their “Military” watches.
Their problem in question is the fact that despite their watches not being available for sale on Amazon, searching for the product will yield alternative results and will not explicitly state that MTM’s watches aren’t available on the website. Now you might think it’s good publicity for MTM but according to the company, they believe the search results could lead to customers buying a competitor’s product instead.
They also claim that it does not encourage customers to search elsewhere for MTM’s products, which we suppose makes sense given that Amazon would much rather keep customers shopping on their site and making their purchases through them. Now it should be noted that MTM actually had issue with this way back in 2011.
However it was only recently with a 2-1 vote in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the case will finally be taken to trial. Judge Barry Silverman who voted against the case wrote, “No reasonably prudent consumer accustomed to shopping online would likely be confused as to the source of the products,” when he noted that Amazon’s search results clearly labels the manufacturer of the watch.