After repeatedly getting fined in Europe over their treatment of third party sellers, today, Amazon spammed millions of e-mail addresses belonging to US-based merchants with communications incorrectly headed as “Amazon Seller Newsletter”, inviting them to bombard Senators with pre-written messages, urging them to oppose a bill “S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act” aimed to reduce Amazon’s power as a monopoly.
The “S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act“ is literally referred to on the official US Government website as: A bill to provide that certain discriminatory conduct by covered platforms shall be unlawful, and for other purposes.
Here you can go through the whole bill and read it:
Following years of making conditions for small business trading through their platform as unbearable as possible, Amazon is now trying to trick sellers in a friendly tone to push policymakers into withdrawing crucial legislation, which would give the company a choice between making the marketplace fairer and compliant with laws or closing it down.
Some examples of discriminatory practices in which Amazon engages include automated A-Z Claim refunds, forced free returns, shutting down of seller accounts without explanation or blocking of listings.
Screenshots of e-mails sent from no-reply@sell.amazon.com, labelled as “Amazon Seller Newsletter” can be found here:
Here is a full quote of the e-mail sent by Amazon:
| Dear Fellow US-based Amazon Seller: We recently had the opportunity to meet our respective congressional representatives in the House and Senate to discuss how proposed legislation jeopardizes Amazon’s ability to operate a marketplace for sellers. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will soon take an important vote on this legislation. We urge you join with us and contact your Senators to oppose these bills. Like you, we partner with Amazon to help our customers quickly and easily purchase the products they want and need. Amazon helps us grow our businesses and reach new customers. This levels the playing field to give small businesses like ours a fighting chance in a fiercely competitive retail landscape. In our meetings, members of Congress and staff heard directly from us. We were able to tell our stories as small business owners and express our concerns about the unintended consequences these bills could have on sellers like us. While most of the conversations were positive, we believe more needs to be done to ensure everyone in Congress fully understands the complexities of e-commerce, online marketplaces, and how sellers and Amazon working together is a win-win for everyone. More importantly, this is very personal for us. Like many of you, our businesses are our livelihoods, and we feel that Congress has failed to understand the collateral damage these bills could cause. If Congress doesn’t hear from more sellers like us, they will legislate without addressing the concerns many of us have raised. This is why our efforts are so important. We ask that you join us to make your voice heard. This will take less than two minutes of your time. Thank you. |
In addition to bombarding sellers with unsolicited e-mails, Amazon setup a website, which includes a pre-written form (that cannot be altered) containing a statement prepared by the company to be forwarded to a Senator.
Here you can view the website
https://act.supportsmallsellers.us/hXxAmhR
Here is a screenshot of the website:
Here is the full wording of the statement which Amazon wishes their sellers to send to Senators:
“ As your constituent, and a small business owner that sells online on Amazon’s store, I am writing to express my concern for S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. As currently written, this legislation would jeopardize Amazon’s ability to operate a marketplace for sellers, potentially resulting in hundreds of thousands of American small and medium-sized businesses losing access to Amazon’s customers and services. If Amazon is forced to remove sellers like me from its marketplace, I would no longer be able to benefit from having my products in Amazon’s store reaching 300 million customers and no longer be part of the Amazon Prime program. I would also no longer be able to use many of the valuable tools and services Amazon offers its small business partners that help me grow my business. The significant negative impact of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act will have on thousands of small businesses in our state cannot be overstated, and I ask that you oppose this legislation. I look forward to hearing your position on this problematic legislation. “ |
My suggestion is to do the exact opposite and e-mail your local Senator with a short description of the matter and an explanation why it is crucial that the S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act is supported.
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