Amazon US introduces ‘dangerous’ goods fee

SEATTLE: Amazon appears to be discouraging its sellers who use the Fulfillment by Amazon programme from sending more dangerous items into its warehouses.

FBA is a programme in which third-party sellers send their goods to be stored in Amazon warehouses before they are sold on Amazon.com. Items are then shipped out like a normal order by the ecommerce giant.

Amazon announced on its seller forum last Wednesday that it will be introducing a new fee for “dangerous” items like aerosol cans and lithium-ion batteries that sellers send to Amazon warehouses. The fees are higher than the regular fees Amazon charges for using Fulfillment by Amazon. For example: a normal item with a shipping weight of between 10 and 16 ounces and is considered small would qualify for a fee of $2.48, while a “dangerous” item the same size would carry a charge of $3.45.


Amazon has a full list of items it considers “dangerous,” which mostly consists of items that are “flammable or pressurised aerosol substances and items that contain lithium-ion batteries.” The new fees will go into effect on February 19, 2019, according to a note on Amazon’s forum for sellers.