Washington, D.C. – An American Economic Liberties Project analysis has found that Amazon is citing inflation for multiple price hikes on consumers and merchants that are significantly exceeding the rate of inflation. These steady price increases have occurred as Amazon, which enjoys a dominant market position in e-commerce, engages in both aggressive anti-union activity to keep wages below industry averages and executes a $10 billion stock buyback.

“Amazon’s profiteering under the guise of inflation is a slap in the face to hardworking American families and the small businesses that have no choice but to use its platform to reach customers,” said Sarah Miller, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “It’s also more evidence that rising prices are being supercharged by shameless corporations like Amazon who can exploit extreme market power and get away with crying inflation. Lawmakers who care about working families and small businesses shouldn’t buy it.”

In January, Amazon announced it was raising its fulfillment fees and storage fees for third-party sellers by 5% and 11% respectively. Then, in February, Amazon announced it was increasing the cost of Amazon Prime by 17%, impacting at least 126 million Amazon Prime subscribers. And yesterday, Amazon unveiled a new 5% price hike for third-party sellers that it has termed a “Fuel and Inflation” surcharge. 

According to research from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Amazon already charges third-party merchants an average of 30 percent of each sale, up from 19 percent just five years ago. The extraordinary fees are hitting sellers hard, as many noted yesterday. They also drive prices up further across the entire economy. As DC Attorney General Karl Racine explained in a recent antitrust suit against Amazon, “these unreasonably high-charges…are passed on to customers not only on Amazon’s platform, but also on all other online retail platforms by virtue of Amazon’s [platform most-favored nation policies].”

For more information on how Amazon’s monopolistic behavior distorts our economy, read American Economic Liberties Project’s report from 2020, “Understanding Amazon.” 

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.