The White House has accused Amazon (AMZN-0.15%) of planning a “hostile and political act,” after a report said the tech giant would display how much tariffs will raise prices.
Punchbowl News, citing an unnamed source familiar with the company’s plan, reported that Amazon “will soon” show how much of an item’s cost is derived from tariffs right next to the product’s listed price. Amazon later refuted parts of the report.
In a White House briefing on Tuesday morning, a reporter asked if the e-commerce giant’s reported price display plan was “a perfect, crystal clear demonstration that it’s the American consumer who is paying for these policies.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had just gotten off the phone with the president about the Amazon story.
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” Leavitt went on to suggest that the company is aligned with a Chinese propaganda arm.
Amazon shares dropped more than 2% in premarket trading before recovering to trade near flat by mid-morning.
Amazon then pushed back on the Punchbowl story. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” Amazon said in a statement attributed to spokesperson Tim Doyle. “This was never approved and is not going to happen,” it added.
Haul is Amazon’s budget shopping experience that’s designed to compete with overseas sellers such as Temu (PDD+1.11%) and Shein.
The e-commerce giant will be hit hard by the president’s tariffs on China, which currently are 145% on goods imported from the country. Over 1,000 products on Amazon have seen price increases since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2. According to price analysis firm SmartScout, the average price jump across those products is around 30%.
“It’s one of the first concerted efforts I’ve seen where nothing explains the price hikes other than tariffs,” SmartScout CEO Scott Needham told CBS MoneyWatch.
Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy told CNBC earlier this month that he expects U.S. tariffs to boost prices on a number of consumer goods. And other sellers of low-cost goods have started to hike their prices, especially as the Trump administration prepares to close the de minimis loophole that has allowed Shein and Temu to flourish without having to pay customs duties and tariffs. And according to Reuters, some Amazon sellers are pulling out of Prime Day amid Trump’s tariffs.
Leavitt’s comments come just days after Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos “great” and said their relationship was grounded in mutual “respect” in a wide-ranging interview with The Atlantic. The president credited Bezos (and Meta (META+0.81%) CEO Mark Zuckerberg) for adjusting company policies to align with the Trump administration.
“He’s 100 percent,” the president said. “He’s been great.”
The post The White House slams Amazon for ‘hostile and political act’ after report it will list tariff price hikes appeared first on Quartz.
