Amazon will add a 5 percent “fuel and inflation tax” to fees charged to third-party sellers that use the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment services to offset growing expenses.
The new fees will apply to all products ordered before April 28 but shipped and delivered after that date.
The company said its expenses had risen since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak owing to increases in hourly rates, the employment of staff, and the construction of additional warehouses.
The retail giant claimed to have absorbed costs wherever feasible and to have only raised rates to address long-term expenditures and to compete with other suppliers.
FedEx and UPS, both competitors of Amazon, levy fuel fees.
Stacy Mitchell co-director for the anti-monopoly group Institute for Local Self-Reliance criticized that the company is blaming inflation and rising fuel costs for the surcharge
She said: “Amazon keeps increasing its fees on the sellers that have to depend on its platform.”
The most recent fee hike follows one announced in November and implemented in January.
Amazon has long been accused of undercutting merchants that sell on its platform by producing “knock-offs,” or extremely identical items, and increasing their visibility on the site.
Their third-party marketplace has around 2 million vendors, who account for more than half of all things sold on the platform.
Last year, merchants paid Amazon over $103 billion in fees, accounting for almost 22 percent of the company’s income.
Source: NBC CT
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