In a nutshell: Two senators are urging the Federal Trade Commission to examine how Amazon's and Walmart's shopping chatbots handle questions about products labeled "Made in the USA." Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott said Amazon's Alexa and Walmart's Sparky may fail to clearly indicate whether products are made domestically. In a letter to the FTC, the senators said the systems could "obscure and suppress" information about US-made goods and products falsely advertised as American-made.
The request follows a July report from Columbia University's Center for Law and the Economy. The report said the two AI systems did not consistently surface information about domestic-origin claims, even though they could provide information on goods made in other countries.
The concern is not simply whether product data exists on a retailer's website. It is whether a chatbot can find and present that information when a shopper asks for it. As retailers put more AI tools between consumers and product listings, the quality of the chatbot's response can shape what shoppers see and buy.
The report's authors tested Alexa and Sparky using prompts about US-made products. Alexa initially said it could not access that information. But when the wording of the request changed, the assistant returned products labeled as made in the US.
Sparky initially said it could not determine whether "Made in USA" claims were accurate. After more detailed prompts, it ranked products in a shopping cart based on the apparent reliability of their labels. The chatbot described its first response as "overly cautious."
Baldwin said the results could put domestic manufacturers at a disadvantage. "If Americans want to buy products made in America, Amazon and Walmart should be helping them, not giving away their business to foreign knockoffs," she said in a statement.
Amazon rejected the suggestion that it deliberately withholds country-of-origin information. The company said it provides manufacturing-location details when manufacturers or third-party sellers supply that information. It also said country-of-origin information is shown on product-detail pages when available.
Amazon said it is working to improve Alexa for Shopping's ability to provide that data. Walmart declined to comment.
The FTC has previously warned both companies about origin claims made by third-party sellers. Last year, the agency wrote to Amazon and Walmart stating that some sellers on their marketplaces appeared to be falsely marketing goods as made in the US. The agency said those claims could violate federal standards and the companies' own terms of service.
Baldwin and Scott said the newer report suggests the issue may not be limited to inaccurate product listings. They said chatbot behavior could make the problem harder for consumers to detect if the systems do not clearly identify products with credible domestic-origin claims.
"We all share the goal of strengthening American manufacturing and small businesses through initiatives such as Made in USA labeling, all while ensuring consumers receive accurate information about where the products they buy are made," the senators wrote.
The request comes as the FTC continues to enforce its Made in USA Labeling Rule. The rule, which took effect in 2021, allows the agency to seek civil penalties against companies that falsely label products as made in the US.
The FTC brought 11 enforcement actions after the rule took effect under the Biden administration, including a case that resulted in a multimillion-dollar judgment against home-goods retailer Williams-Sonoma. The agency has continued taking action over national-origin claims during the Trump administration and has issued warning letters to other businesses.
President Trump also signed an executive order in March calling for truthful advertising and suggesting that the FTC require e-commerce platforms to develop procedures for verifying country-of-origin claims from third-party sellers.
Erie Meyer, a senior fellow at the Center for Law and the Economy and a co-author of the July report, said the bipartisan support for an FTC investigation was notable. "Seeing Sen. Baldwin and Sen. Scott sign the same letter gives me hope that supporting American businesses is still a bipartisan issue," Meyer told The Wall Street Journal.
Senators urge FTC to investigate whether Amazon and Walmart chatbots bury "Made in USA" products
