Amazon is applying a fuel surcharge to fulfillment fees for sellers in Canada and the U.S., a spokesperson for the e-commerce giant confirmed to CBC News on Thursday.

The 3.5 per cent surcharge will first apply to those using the Fulfillment by Amazon program, through which sellers can outsource packing and shipping to the company's fulfillment warehouses. This surcharge, meant for those with an online Amazon storefront operating in the United States and Canada, will be imposed beginning on April 17.

Sellers who use the company's Multi-Channel Fulfillment program — which can be used by those who have a non-Amazon sales channel, like a personal website — will see a surcharge starting on May 2.

“Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry," the spokesperson said in a statement, saying the company has "absorbed these increases" so far.

"But similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated we implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs," the spokesperson wrote. "We remain committed to our selling partners’ success and to maintaining broad selection and low prices for customers.”

A number of major companies who offer consumer services have added fuel surcharges to their base rate in the weeks since the beginning of a global energy crisis that began with the U.S. and Israel's attack on Iran.

The selling stuff is a loss leader thing for Amazon they make their money off of AWS.

Watch as the Corporate will keep this surcharge after the crisis is over.

That’s Capitalism for yaa baby! Than something else will happen and they will see they can push that surcharge higher. If Amazon gets in any hot water Jeff will give everyone a $5 amazon gift card and name his new boat Delivery with a helicopter named Surcharge!

I cancelled Amazon ages ago and don't miss it.

I cancelled it in 2025.

All the more reason why we should divest from any and all US companies like this one. The only thing I bought from Amazon is books via gift cards I got from step counting apps. I've instead found a way to divert the cards into either Indigo gift cards, or cash cards. I will never give them another penny.

I love the sentiment but who is selling your step data? Unless you have found some way to self host your step counter and get rewards for it some tech company is selling your information and location history.

At this point for me, it's about picking and choosing my battles. Give me a year to settle into my upcoming new job, then I'll dump the apps.

Up until now, I've had to hold my nose and shop at Walmart because I've been on a student budget, but I'll change that once a decent wage starts.

Totally fair, I did not mean to guilt you or anything like that. You are on Lemmy, you obviously know data gets sold and people make money off of you using closed sourced systems, and some open source ones I guess.

No worries, I didn't take it as such! Context can be hard on merely text-based communication. I'm just sharing my personal progress in regards to the Great Divestment.

Totally, I am still stuck with some of Apple’s big tech things; iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. I do not have the money to replace them. I did however get the warning that my iCloud account will be closed soon which felt so good.

I personally self host a Nextcloud install and a bunch of other things to replace or “arr” things that I used to pay for. It is great being in control of your own stuff.