(Reuters) – Amazon.com is scrapping a plan to charge merchants who do not use the company’s shipping services an additional fee, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing documents it had reviewed.
The reported turnaround in Amazon’s plans comes when the e-commerce giant is facing a potential antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The move suggests the company is taking a more cautious approach to how much money it can charge online sellers, the Bloomberg report said.
Effective Oct. 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 fee would have applied to thousands of merchants who ship orders through Seller Fulfilled Prime – Amazon’s program that guarantees swift product delivery, even though the company does not handle the shipping itself, the report said.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The FTC is expected to file a lawsuit against Amazon later this month after the company did not offer concessions to settle antitrust claims, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The FTC began probing the company during the Trump administration, when it also launched investigations into other tech majors. Amazon has been criticized for allegedly favoring its own products over those from outside sellers on its platform.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
