Amazon Sellers Protest Policy Changes With One-Day Ad Boycott

Hundreds of large Amazon sellers are protesting the company’s recent policy changes by boycotting its advertising platform on Wednesday (April 15), CNBC reported.

The sellers oppose three changes made by Amazon: one that means the company pays out seller earnings seven days after products are delivered, rather than seven days after they are shipped; another that automatically deducts payments for advertising services from sellers’ earnings, rather than letting sellers pay by credit card, and a third that adds a temporary 3.5% fuel surcharge, according to the report.

One seller quoted in the report said the change to payouts creates a major cash flow crunch, another said the change to the payment method for ad services will cost sellers the credit card points they have come to depend on, and others said the fuel surcharge will force them to raise prices.

The sellers’ 24-hour boycott was organized by a community of sellers called Million Dollar Sellers (MDS), per the report.

“This April 15th boycott is not just about an ad fee. It is about the continued policy changes that keep hurting Amazon business valuations,” MDSF Co-founder Eugene Khayman said in a recent post on X. “These businesses once sold for as high as 8x earnings. Now many are closer to 3x on the high end.”

Amazon spokesperson Ashley Vanicek told CNBC that the changes to advertising payment methods and payouts affect “a small subset of sellers” and align their practices with those of most of the other sellers on the platform.

The company has said that the fuel surcharge enables it to partially recover the rising costs of oil and logistics, according to the report.

It was reported in June 2025 that sellers clashed with Amazon over the company’s returns policy. A spike in returns fraud caused customers to mistakenly receive used items when they had purchased a new product. This issue led some merchants to pull back from the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, and others to simply leave the platform. A seller told CNBC in that report that Amazon had shipped used products that had been returned earlier.