Amazon Imposing Fee on Sellers Who Ship Products Themselves
- The new levy comes even with an FTC antitrust suit looming
- Merchant fees generate revenue as online sales growth slows
Thousands of third-party sellers who ship products themselves will start paying a 2% fee on each sale in October.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Amazon.com Inc. is imposing a new fee on merchants who don’t use the company’s logistics services, a change many of these sellers consider coercive and surprising since the US government is poised to file an antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant.
Thousands of third-party merchants who ship products via Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program will start paying a 2% fee on each sale in October, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. That’s on top of the commission — usually 15% — that merchants already pay Amazon to sell products on the popular web store.