On June 14, according to media reports, Amazon excluded its new competitor Temu from its price search algorithm because the site did not meet its criteria.。The algorithm can check whether the products sold on its platform are competitive with competitors.。

Amazon's pricing algorithm uses automatic and manual tracking methods to check products inside and outside the Amazon platform to ensure that the asking price of merchants on its platform is not significantly higher than that of Amazon competitors。Amazon says Temu does not meet the strict qualification requirements of Amazon's fair pricing policy。

Temu did not respond to Amazon's approach。So why is Amazon targeting Temu？

Temu, an overseas online shopping subsidiary of Pinduoduo, was launched in September last year.。As a shopping platform, Temu inevitably wants to compete with Amazon overseas, and low prices are its trick。Temu sells low-priced household items, electronics and clothing from China on the platform, including $5 dresses and $2 makeup brush sets, among others.。

Since its launch, Temu has been "killing the Quartet" overseas, and although its size is hard to match that of Amazon, the rise of Temu is still staggering.。From the launch to the top of the App Store free shopping app list, it took less than two months。By November last year, Temu ranked first in the download list in both the Apple App Store and Google Play app stores.。On YouTube, Tik Tok and other platforms, Temu's "out-of-the-box videos" are countless。At the Super Bowl in February this year, tens of millions of dollars were spent on advertising, and the slogan "Shop like a Billionaire" hit consumers directly into their hearts.。With multi-channel publicity, Temu has firmly attached the label of low price to itself。

Amazon said the company "works hard every day to provide customers with low prices."。However, if prices on the company's platform are compared to Temu, it could result in a large number of sellers being punished and forced to cut prices to unprofitable levels.。

The penalties mentioned here stem from Amazon's fair pricing policy.。The pricing policy on Amazon's website states: "If we find that the pricing practices of a store offer undermine the trust of a customer, Amazon may remove a featured offer, remove an offer, suspend its shipping options, or suspend or terminate the selling privilege in severe or repeated cases.。"

So for repeat offenders who are deemed overpriced, Amazon will punish them by suspending sales or taking their products off the shelves.。Merchants with uncompetitive prices will face Amazon removing their buy button (a button that enables shoppers to quickly and easily purchase products) until Amazon merchants have similar prices to competitors.。

The emergence of Temu has greatly affected the merchants entering the Amazon platform.。

Some Amazon merchants say the company sells for 25 on Amazon.$99 gym equipment sells for less than $5 on Temu。When he saw the products, he feared he would be penalized for Amazon's fair pricing policy.。

The merchant then sued Temu in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging that Temu and its suppliers violated his copyrights and caused damage to his sales.。His complaint alleges that after seeing the success of his fitness equipment, Temu and its suppliers copied and sold products to steal its "commercial success."。

In April, a merchant of microfiber headscarves also filed a lawsuit against Temu.。Its hijab is on Amazon at 29, lawsuit says.It sells for $99, but Temu has a similar hijab that sells for only 5.88美元。

For these Amazon merchants, Temu's low prices for similar products seriously jeopardize their sales。Not only because of the loss of price advantage, but also will be punished by Amazon's pricing policy.。For merchants, if they don't want to cut prices and squeeze profits, they'll have to be on Amazon's side.。

Amazon is wary of engaging in a price war with a competitor it sees as discredited。The company says its qualification standards ensure that it does not compare or match prices with goods from suspicious markets, including potentially counterfeit products.。

Although it seems that Amazon does not want to face Temu and hard price, but on the one hand Temu will be excluded from the price search algorithm, on the other hand, and play the "fake and shoddy" card, it can be seen that Amazon is still a little bit of pressure on Temu.。However, a similar scene has been staged in China for a long time, and once upon a time Pinduoduo was labeled as inferior and counterfeit, but under the temptation of tens of billions of subsidies, many people were still "really sweet" in the end.。Now the same trick is on the other side of the ocean, I don't know how the two sides will compete next, wait and see。