Amazon raises seller fees in France

After France approved a new digital tax on American tech giants, Amazon reacted by passing along the costs to French Amazon sellers. The marketplace is raising seller fees by 3 percent for thousands of small and medium-sized businesses in France.

Last month, France passed a 3 percent tax to the French revenues of almost 30 major companies, of which most are from the US. Amazon has now reacted by introducing higher seller fees for its French marketplace.

France wants to level playing field

The reason for the French government to introduce the digital tax was to level the playing field between big tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook and small and medium-sized enterprises. But now it seems the small Amazon sellers are hurt by this decision.

‘Tax will lead to higher prices for consumers’

US President Donald Trump already said that the tax unfairly targets American companies, but according to CNBC, economists also warned that the tax measure would ultimately result in higher prices for consumers.

Peter Hiltz, director of international tax policy and planning at Amazon, already called the digital tax harmful and discriminatory. “It will negatively affect the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-size businesses that use Amazon’s services to help reach customers in France.”

In a statement Amazon said that because the tax is aimed at the marketplace services they provided to businesses, they had no choice but to pass it down to selling partners. “We recognize that this may place small firms in France at a competitive disadvantage to their counterparts in other countries.”