Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren sharply criticized Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Wednesday after his company denied reports that it was considering listing tariff costs on its online marketplace alongside an item’s sticker prices.
In a letter to Bezos, Warren accused him of reversing course on the plan after speaking with President Donald Trump, part of a pattern, she said “of Big Tech working together with President Trump to seek special favors or support his policies in what can appear to be a quid pro quo.”
Amazon, however, said Warren’s assertions were inaccurate and that the reported plan was “not going to happen.”
According to Punchbowl News, a Washington, D.C., based political news outlet, Amazon had planned to begin displaying the portion of each item’s cost that was derived from tariffs instituted by the president.
Such a move could have provided the average American with a clearer picture of the economic toll of tariffs on their wallet.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the plan “a hostile and political act by Amazon.”
Trump spoke with Bezos on Tuesday, he told reporters.
“Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific,” the president said. “He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy.”
The company denied the report of its tariff plan, saying that the “ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products.”
The plan “was never approved and is not going to happen,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
Had the company initiated a plan to list tariff costs on individual items, “it could have provided important information for consumers, allowing them to find out for themselves some of the true costs of President Trump’s broad and chaotic tariff policies,” Warren wrote in the letter to Bezos on Wednesday.
In response, a company spokesperson reiterated that the Amazon Haul store had considered the idea, which was not approved, and called the claims Warren made inaccurate.
Trump imposed the tariffs, a tax on imports, on products from numerous countries, following through on a campaign pledge to institute them across the board on most foreign-made goods.
Tariffs will likely spur higher prices on those products, the Federal Reserve has warned.
The president has adjusted some of the levies and exempted some products, but has left in place tariffs as high as 145% on China, one of the leading manufacturers of imports to America.
