What happened
On September 17, 2026, Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Rick Scott (R-FL) sent a bipartisan letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Mark Meador asking the agency to investigate whether Amazon's 'Alexa for Shopping' and Walmart's 'Sparky' AI shopping assistants suppress or obscure 'Made in the USA' product information and fail to flag fraudulently labeled goods, and to consider enforcement action following investigation.
Why it matters
While not yet an FTC action, this is a concrete congressional oversight request targeting a specific AI deployment (agentic shopping assistants) for consumer-protection violations under Section 5, building on prior FTC letters to the same companies. It signals the FTC's likely next enforcement target in AI-driven commerce and previews a Section-5-based deceptive-practices theory applied specifically to generative/agentic AI outputs.
Action needed
Retailers deploying AI shopping/chat assistants should audit how the assistants handle country-of-origin and 'Made in USA' representations, and watch for a formal FTC investigation or civil investigative demand.