Are Amazon sellers getting a devil's bargain?

Is the online retail giant taking advantage of its merchants?

An Amazon warehouse.
(Image credit: INA FASSBENDER/AFP/Getty Images)

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Amazon has been running an "Accelerator" program to help smaller sellers build brands, said Jon Emont at The Wall Street ­Journal — with one very big catch. Amazon, in contracts revealed this week by the Journal, gets "the right to purchase a merchant's brand at any time for a fixed price, often $10,000." Much of what's sold on Amazon​.com actually comes from "third-party sellers," independent businesses that market everything from phone chargers to dish soap through Amazon's site and warehouses. Those businesses compete furiously with one another for visibility. Sellers that sign on to the Accelerator get "marketing support, product reviews, and prominent display," but if a merchant's brand is successful, Amazon can buy it with just 60 days' notice. The original owner remains Amazon's exclusive supplier for two years after the acquisition. Merchants complain that Amazon is making them choose between holding on to their brand or securing the attention that Amazon offers favored sellers. Says one, "It's a pseudo-partnership that's completely one-sided."

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