Amazon marketplace fee increase angers traders

AMAZON has sparked anger among users of its online marketplace by increasing the fees it charges by up to 70%.

Marketplace traders - third-party sellers who provide products through the Amazon website - will pay 12% of the sale price of electronic accessories such as USB sticks and memory cards from 4 April. The current rate is 7%.

Those who sell car accessories will see their fee rate increase from 12 to 15%.

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Two of every five items sold on Amazon is provided by a third-party, many of whom sell products through multiple sites including Amazon rivals eBay and Play.com.

Amazon has come under fire over its tax affairs in recent months. The European Commission moved last year to close a loophole which allowed the world’s largest online retailer to charge just 3% VAT on ebooks, and George Osborne has looked to halt the company’s use of ‘preferred merchants’ in the Channel Islands to provide DVDs and CDs VAT-free.

Amazon announced in January that operating income increased to $405m in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 56% rise on the same time in 2011.

• Amazon have announced a deal to buy GoodReads, a social network and recommendation site for book readers. The site and its apps have 16 million registered users.

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