This story is so much worse than the headline suggests, despite that seeming impossible.
If they artificially limit their "AI" from outside pressure, then they will have admitted that they can do it, and they'll get pressured to do it more and more. They don't want to deal with that, and would rather wait until a law is passed "forcing" them to do so - coincidentally Amazon will be best positioned to comply with that law and for some reason it'll only ever be used to go after smaller competitors.
They are obviously afraid of a precedent of having to answer for what they sell on their site and what happens next.
It’s understandable but no less sociopathic once understood.