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A policy to delay payment to sellers has been extended to all European vendors on the platform, Amazon said. The company insists most of its sellers were not impacted by the rule change on 3 August.
By Brad Young, Live blog reporter @bradley_jyoung
A businessman who sells products through Amazon has complained the online retail giant could make small firms bankrupt due to a policy to delay payments.
The online marketplace has extended a policy not to pay sellers until seven days after the delivery of their products, to ensure it has funds for returns or customer claims.
Amazon has now applied the policy to all European sellers.
Vendors registered before 2016 – approximately 15% of total UK and European traders – were not subject to the policy until 3 August, and some of them say the change is a threat to their businesses.
Marios Katz, 46, from Cyprus, who sells CDs and vinyl to the UK, said Amazon is holding £5,000 of his earnings.
“Amazon will lead us into bankruptcy for all the small businesses and companies,” Mr Katz told Sky News.
He said his bills, employees, postage and couriers will go unpaid.
“We will not be able to pay our supplier for the products we buy and sell on Amazon. This is unacceptable,” he added.
The financial website This is Money estimates 33,750 of the 225,000 firms in Europe that sell through Amazon could be impacted by the change.
Hundreds of complaints have been posted on the Amazon Sellers forum by those who have had their money withheld, as reported by the BBC.
The Treasury is aware of the matter, the broadcaster said, citing the office of Conservative MP for Bracknell, James Sunderland.
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Amazon told Sky News the policy was first introduced in August 2016, already applied to 85% of sellers, and that the remainder were given three months’ notice.
A spokesperson said: “This process will standardise this policy for European sellers to ensure they have sufficient funds to cover any financial obligations, like product returns or customer claims.
“This change does not impact the vast majority of selling partners.”
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