• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics

1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

2

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

3

Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
TechAmazon

Exclusive: The FTC is probing Amazon’s new controversial fees in its $140 billion seller business

By
Jason Del Rey
Jason Del Rey
Former Tech Correspondent
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jason Del Rey
Jason Del Rey
Former Tech Correspondent
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 8, 2024, 2:50 PM ET
A chest-up image of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at a 2021 conference hosted by a Seattle tech news website.
The Federal Trade Commission continues to eye Amazon’s relationship with its sellers under CEO Andy Jassy. David Ryder—Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission has begun examining a new set of fees Amazon has recently levied on U.S. merchants selling goods through its online megastore, according to multiple sources familiar with the development. The agency’s interest comes in the wake of Fortune’s report last week that found many longtime Amazon sellers are furious about the fees. 

One new fee requires sellers to either pay for a new Amazon warehousing service or begin shipping goods to at least four different warehouses on their own dime to avoid the fee. Another penalizes sellers if their inventory in Amazon warehouses consistently runs too low, unless they sign up for the same new Amazon warehousing service.

Sometime after the article was published, FTC staff began reaching out to Amazon sellers to learn more about the impact of the fees, according to multiple sources. It’s unclear how many sellers have been contacted. It’s also not yet clear what the exact goal of the inquiries is, but the FTC last year filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon that included claims of Amazon abusing its power over these sellers. Amazon is fighting the suit.

FTC spokesperson Douglas Farrar declined to comment.

Amazon spokesperson Mira Dix told Fortune that the new fee changes “allow sellers to choose where they want to have Amazon take on different aspects of fulfillment and where they want to do the work themselves. On average, the 2024 fee changes are significantly less than those announced by other major fulfillment services, and many sellers will see a decrease in the average fees paid to Amazon per unit sold.”

None of the half dozen sellers Fortune spoke to last week expected their costs to decrease as a result of the changes, however.

Amazon first announced these fees and other seller fee changes in December, and said they were designed to increase shipping speeds for Amazon customers, while reducing the costs of such initiatives. But a half dozen top Amazon sellers told Fortune last week that the new fees are overly complex and expensive, and may force them to cede more control of their supply chain to the tech giant or raise prices for consumers buying their goods on Amazon.

The new fees apply to the majority of the hundreds of thousands of small and midsize businesses that sell goods on Amazon in the U.S., and that already pay Amazon to store and ship goods on their behalf through a program known as FBA, or Fulfillment by Amazon. FBA is the easiest way for sellers to guarantee that their goods carry the crucial Amazon Prime badge and are available for fast delivery. 

Amazon sellers accounted for more than 60% of items sold on the company’s shopping sites during the holiday quarter, with the tech giant generating $140 billion in revenue from seller fees alone in 2023.

Last week, Amazon sellers told Fortune that at least one of the new fees—called “the inbound placement service fee”—appears designed to pressure merchants to utilize another Amazon warehousing service in addition to FBA, called AWD, or Amazon Warehousing and Distribution. The idea of AWD is to replace warehouses where Amazon sellers store their long-term inventory before they are shipped to Amazon’s FBA warehouses or fulfillment centers to be packed into customer orders. 

Some of the business owners who spoke to Fortune also said that this new “placement fee,” coupled with another that Amazon will soon charge for low-inventory levels, will force them to pass on price increases to Amazon customers. 

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to sell on Amazon,” Albert Grazi, a highly rated Amazon seller of seven years who sells around $5 million in water filtration products on Amazon annually, told Fortune last week. “You are getting squeezed from all sides.”

In the days since the original Fortune report, the new fees have sparked impassioned discussions among sellers on LinkedIn, the popular wallstreetbets subreddit, as well as Amazon’s own seller-focused message board. Some sellers have appeared blindsided by the news, while others have been sharing advice on potential workarounds. One involves applying for Merchant Fulfilled Prime, which allows a seller to store and ship their products on their own and still earn the Prime badge if they can hit a strict threshold of delivery performance.

Beyond the new inbound placement fees, on April 1 Amazon will also begin charging most sellers a fee if they don’t consistently have four weeks of inventory in Amazon fulfillment centers. One problem, sellers told Fortune, is that Amazon also charges sellers for storing too much inventory in Amazon facilities. 

“You gotta precisely thread the needle to not get completely killed,” Judah Bergman, the CEO of a major Amazon seller called Jool Baby, said last week of the low-inventory charges.

However, sellers can avoid the low-inventory fees by handing Amazon more control of their supply chain and utilizing the AWD service for long-term inventory storage.

Do you have thoughts on this topic or a tip to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at jason.delrey@fortune.com, jasondelrey@protonmail.com, or through secure messaging app Signal at 917-655-4267. You can also message him on LinkedIn or at @delrey onX.

Join our exclusive webinar on May 28, featuring tech leaders from Orange, Mars, Reckitt, and Saint-Gobain. Apply to attend and receive Fortune’s editorial takeaways.
About the Author
By Jason Del ReyFormer Tech Correspondent
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

chicks
InnovationScience
Jurassic Park isn’t just a movie anymore as de-extinction startup hatches live chicks
By Adithi Ramakrishnan and The Associated PressMay 20, 2026
13 minutes ago
whales
AISan Francisco
San Francisco thinks AI can save the whales. Here’s how
By Annika Hammerschlag and The Associated PressMay 20, 2026
34 minutes ago
schmidt
AIColleges and Universities
The sound of graduating from college in the AI summer of 2026: boo!
By Heather Hollingsworth, Jocelyn Gecker and The Associated PressMay 20, 2026
52 minutes ago
gen z
AIGen Z
3 reasons kids hate AI—especially the ones who refuse to even try it
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
56 minutes ago
Accenture exec says the consulting giant is hiring more entry-level workers out of college compared to last year
Future of WorkWorkplace Innovation Summit
Accenture exec says the consulting giant is hiring more entry-level workers out of college compared to last year
By Emma BurleighMay 20, 2026
2 hours ago
cohen
Startups & VentureAI agents
Meet the brothers who turned a homegrown AI agent into a $12 million bet on the future of work — in six weeks
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
19 hours ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
8 days ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 19, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 19, 2026
1 day ago
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
Travel & Leisure
Spirit Airlines apologizes to all the Americans who can't afford any summer vacation flights as it shuts down
By Rio Yamat and The Associated PressMay 18, 2026
2 days ago
Employers are quietly pausing 401(k) matches again. The last time this happened was the 2008 recession and Covid
Personal Finance
Employers are quietly pausing 401(k) matches again. The last time this happened was the 2008 recession and Covid
By Courtney Vinopal and HR BrewMay 18, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.