Amazon Imposes 3.5% Fuel Surcharge For Many Online Merchants

Amazon will start charging sellers who use its shipping services a 3.5% “fuel and logistics” surcharge later this month, joining the ranks of shipping companies raising prices as the war in Iran pushes oil prices higher. The fees take effect on April 17 for customers of the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon service — which is used by many of the independent sellers who list their products on Amazon’s retail sites — in the US and Canada. Items shipped by Amazon on behalf of merchants who sell on their own sites or at other retailers will carry the surcharge beginning May 2. “Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry,” Ashley Vanicek, an Amazon spokesperson, said on Thursday. “We have absorbed these increases so far, but similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated we implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs.”

Vanicek notes that the fee will apply to the sum Amazon charges to ship an item, not the product’s sale price.

Last month, USPS announced that it would impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages.