Amazon scraps merchant fee ahead of expected antitrust suit: Report
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Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is scrapping a planned fee on merchants that donât use its shipping services, Bloomberg reported citing documents.
The reversal suggests the company is being more cautious about how much money it tries to extract from online sellers amid an antitrust investigation.
The 2% fee on merchants was set to take effect on Oct. 1.
The U.S. government is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against AMZN soon. The federal case is expected to focus in part on Amazonâs alleged efforts to coerce merchants into using its logistics services, Bloomberg said.
Shares are dropped 0.5% on Wednesday.
The Federal Trade Commission is expected to file a case this month as the company has been accused of having too much power over the millions of merchants who use its platform.
The fee would have applied to thousands of third-party merchants who ship products via Amazonâs Seller Fulfilled Prime program, which guarantees speedy delivery. It would have been added to a commission â usually 15% â that merchants already pay Amazon to sell products on the popular web store.

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