For 20 years now, I've been amazed and completely disgusted by Amazon's fee structure.
I get all the music CDs that I sell on Amazon for free, because I write a music column in a local newspaper. Most of the time, I get slammed with predatory fees. I can't list a CD for any lower than $7 or I'll literally only make, at most, $2, minus the cost of bubble envelopes.
Some countries have already taken steps to stop this insanity, and it's past time that the FTC and 17 state attorneys general are calling Bezos out on his psychotic greed.
I was alerted to this today; Amazon contacted all its sellers with a letter claiming that they are "trying to encourage competition" or some such obfuscatory nonsense.
The FTC complaint can be read in its entirety here, but for sellers, the relevant part is printed below. I hope this cheers someone up. I'm sure happy about it, I'll tell you that.
"Charging costly fees on the hundreds of thousands of sellers that currently have no choice but to rely on Amazon to stay in business. These fees range from a monthly fee sellers must pay for each item sold, to advertising fees that have become virtually necessary for sellers to do business. Combined, all of these fees force many sellers to pay close to 50% of their total revenues to Amazon. These fees harm not only sellers but also shoppers, who pay increased prices for thousands of products sold on or off Amazon."
