Amazon has been accused of threatening to delist suppliers who don’t meet demands to pay large lump sums to improve profitability of sales.
The Grocer said it had seen evidence of demands from the business for one-off payments and large cost price reductions to UK companies.
It reported that suppliers said they had been issued a 48 hour deadline to pay the money, which came to tens of thousands of pounds, and were warned their goods could be delisted otherwise.
A Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) expert told The Grocer he had heard from at least six companies who had received a similar warning and one UK-based supplier said Amazon had given them two days to respond to “an ask of more than £50,000 to plug a profit gap”.
Amazon claimed letters sent to suppliers issuing similar demands were a “mistake”.
A spokesperson for the business said: “Amazon takes the groceries code very seriously and we strive to ensure we meet our obligations at all times.
“We are aware some grocery suppliers received a notification in error, and we are working to reassure them of our commitments under the GSCOP principles.
“We encourage any grocery suppliers who received this notification to contact Amazon’s code compliance officer.”
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Amazon has previously been criticised for its handling of suppliers, with the business coming last in the Groceries Code Adjudicator’s 2023 annual survey in June.
Nearly 12% of suppliers claimed the company “never” complied with the GSCOP while 30% said it rarely did.
An Amazon spokesperson responded at the time: “We take compliance with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice extremely seriously, and we are introducing further changes to continue to improve the experience for our grocery suppliers.
“It is clear from these survey results there is more to do, and we are committed to listening to our suppliers and making further improvements.”
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