Amazon Fears a World where Sellers Have Real Choices

4. Amazon’s use of Seller Fulfilled Prime underscores the harms to competition caused by Amazon’s conditioning Prime eligibility on use of FBA

397. Amazon’s fear of a world in which unrestricted seller choice leads to increased competition is grounded in experience. For a period of time, Amazon temporarily allowed sellers to use their own fulfillment solution for Prime-eligible orders. When Amazon realized it had lowered a barrier to competition, it quickly reversed course.

398. In 2015, Amazon briefly experimented with allowing a small subset of sellers to fulfill Prime-eligible orders without using FBA. That year, Amazon launched a program it later called Seller Fulfilled Prime (“SFP”), which was (redacted) SFP let sellers make Prime-eligible offers without purchasing FBA services. Though SFP was popular with sellers, Amazon shuttered SFP enrollment in 2019 (redacted).

399. From SFP’s launch, Amazon (redacted)

400. SFP was an immediate hit among sellers. In the program’s first full year, Amazon onboarded more than (redacted) sellers. At its peak, approximately (redacted) sellers had enrolled in SFP. Yet even these enrollment numbers understate seller demand for SFP, because Amazon (redacted)

401. Sellers enrolled in SFP (redacted)

402. Mr. Bezos highlighted SFP in his 2015 letter to shareholders, explaining that Amazon had “invited sellers . . . to be part of the Prime program and ship their own orders at Prime speed directly.” Mr. Bezos described SFP as a win-win for sellers and shoppers, writing, “[t]hose [enrolled] sellers have already seen a significant bump in sales, and the program has led to hundreds of thousands of additional items that are available to Prime customers via free two-day or next-day shipping.” Though SFP was benefitting at least some shoppers and sellers, internally certain Amazon executives (redacted) Amazon executives (redacted) These executives (redacted)

403. Amazon (redacted)

404. A few months later (redacted) But Amazon decided to prioritize excluding rivals and foreclosing competition, even if it came at a cost to Amazon’s customers.

405. Some Amazon employees had suggested (redacted) Amazon wanted to minimize any potential backlash from SFP sellers, so in 2019 Amazon let sellers already in SFP remain while blocking all new enrollment. Critically, Amazon communicated to those sellers who were already in SFP that it expected them to fulfill orders themselves, rather than using independent fulfillment providers. (Redacted)

406. Some sellers who still participate in SFP report frustrations with Amazon’s administration of the program, including concerns that Amazon holds SFP sellers to stricter delivery benchmarks than FBA. And despite Amazon’s promise that SFP products will receive the Prime badge, Amazon does not consistently display the Prime badge on SFP products. Amazon’s search filter that allows shoppers to view only Prime-eligible products suppresses Prime offers fulfilled through SFP.

407. Sellers continue to want Prime eligibility uncoupled from the coerced purchase of FBA services. (Redacted)

408. Conditioning Prime eligibility on FBA usage—and thus preventing sellers from using independent fulfillment providers—is not necessary to ensure Prime subscribers receive quality shipping. Amazon’s internal analyses showed that (Redacted) For example, (Redacted) Had Amazon genuinely cared about improving shipping speeds, it would have encouraged SFP sellers to use independent fulfillment providers instead of shuttering SFP to deliberately impede those providers’ growth.

409. Amazon recently announced plans to reopen SFP enrollment. According to Amazon, to enroll in the program, sellers would need to meet rigorous pre-qualification criteria to enroll in a 30-day SFP trial, after which Amazon will determine whether they may participate in SFP. Amazon’s communications about upcoming changes to the SFP program continue to indicate that sellers would need to fulfill Prime orders themselves, without using independent fulfillment providers. As of this filing, SFP enrollment remains closed.