Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) plans to slap a 5% surcharge on some third-party sellers to offset rising fuel costs.
The online retailing giant will impose the charge on merchants to warehouse and ship their products in the United States.
An Amazon spokesperson told Reuters the surcharge, which will come into effect in about two weeks, amounts to an average hike of US$ 24c per item and is not permanent.
This compares with UPS's fuel surcharge of US$ 42c and FedEx (NYSE:FDX)'s fee of US$ 49c, as of March 21.
The company charges merchants to store their inventory in its warehouses and to use its supply chain and shipping operations.
Fees are already collected by Amazon from sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA.
Reports indicate more than 89% of Amazon's 2-mln sellers used FBA in 2021.
"In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as Covid-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges," an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.
"It is still unclear if these inflationary costs will go up or down, or for how long they will persist, so rather than a permanent fee change, we will be employing a fuel and inflation surcharge for the first time, a mechanism broadly used across supply chain providers."