Amazon adds 3.5% fuel surcharge for sellers amid Iran war

Amazon is introducing a new 3.5% fuel surcharge for merchants using its distribution network, effective April 17. The policy shift comes as rising energy costs impact the e-commerce company’s operations. The surcharge will apply to sellers who use the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service—a program where third-party merchants send products to Amazon warehouses to be packed and shipped to buyers. While Amazon does not disclose the exact number of merchants using FBA, the program underpins the vast majority of third-party sales on its platform. Consequently, the policy has the potential to inflict significant new costs on the untold merchants that rely on the e-commerce giant to sell their products.

According to Amazon, the surcharge will be in place for the foreseeable future, though the company will continue to evaluate potential policy shifts as market conditions evolve. The news of the new fee was originally reported by Bloomberg. An Amazon spokesperson stated that the surcharge is meaningfully lower than surcharges applied by other major carriers. “We have 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 said.

The policy shift follows global oil market volatility caused by the war in Iran, which has hammered global oil markets and caused gas prices in the U.S. to spike significantly. The conflict has severely impacted the Strait of Hormuz—a critical shipping lane for global oil supplies through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes. Iran has sought to block shipping lanes in the strait, a move that has driven crude oil prices to over $100 a barrel and roiled energy prices throughout the world. The geopolitical conflict was spurred by the Trump administration and the Israeli government’s assassination of the nation’s Supreme Leader.

This move mirrors Amazon’s strategy in 2022, which was the first time the company instituted this type of fuel surcharge. That policy was also implemented when crude oil traded at over $100 a barrel, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent global energy markets into disruption.

Why it matters

Amazon’s move highlights how geopolitical instability in critical energy corridors like the Strait of Hormuz directly impacts the operational costs of global e-commerce platforms and their third-party sellers. As energy prices remain volatile, these added logistics costs are increasingly passed down to the merchants underpinning major digital marketplaces.