Amazon drops planned merchant fee as FTC lawsuit looms

Amazon.com is scrapping a plan to charge merchants who do not use its shipping services an additional fee, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday, signaling that the e-commerce giant was taking a cautious approach to operations amid mounting antitrust scrutiny.

Effective October 1, Amazon was planning to impose a new 2% fee on every sale by third-party sellers that ship their products themselves, according to media reports in August. The company said the fee was intended to shield itself from higher costs.

“After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision not to implement this program fee to ensure seller sentiment related to the fee does not impact program participation,” an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters.