Amazon’s AI Shopping Tool Faces Retailer Backlash Over Website Scraping

Amazon’s latest AI experiment has backfired, igniting a revolt amongst small retailers.
The e-commerce giant quietly launched a feature that scrapes competitor websites without permission, and now hundreds of small businesses are fighting back.
Amazon’s “Shop Direct” feature, launched in February 2025, was designed to make shopping easier by letting customers browse products from other retailers directly on Amazon’s platform.
But what seemed like innovation has turn