Amazon has “no choice” but to raise seller fees 3% in tax retaliation

Amazon is raising seller fees in France in direct response to a recently imposed digital tax, escalating its standoff with the French government.

French retailers selling on Amazon marketplace will see their seller fees jump three per cent from October.

The ecommerce giant was clear that this tax on small and medium-sized sellers was in direct response to a new three per cent digital tax which was imposed by the French government in October.

READ MORE: Amazon, Facebook and Google to join forces with Trump to fight French tech tax

France is the first country to impose such a tax, which taxes any company making more than €750 million (£687 million) globally and €25 million (£22.9 million) of sales in France, aimed at levelling the playing field between the tech giants and smaller bricks-and-mortar retailers.

“The fact that such companies pay less tax in France than a large bakery or a cheese producer in Quercy creates a real problem,” France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire said.

This tax has drawn the ire of both President Donald Trump and tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft and Google, who claimed yesterday at a US hearing that it unfairly targeted US companies.

Trump has subsequently threatened to impose tariffs on France in response.

Amazon stated: “This tax is aimed squarely at the marketplace services we provide to businesses, so we 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.”

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