from Hacker News

Amazon Rules Out Displaying Tariff Impact After White House Attack

by biscuit1v9 on 4/30/25, 9:47 AM with 72 comments

  • by mmcconnell1618 on 4/30/25, 11:38 AM

    There is no regulation or legislation that is telling Amazon they can/can't or should/shouldn't post this information. Amazon appears to be responding to the wishes of the President out of fealty or fear. The threat of a negative response by the President is enough to change the behavior of the company.

  • by a2128 on 4/30/25, 11:55 AM

    Whenever I visit the US I get annoyed that the prices listed on the store shelves aren't actually what I pay; in Europe all prices are VAT-inclusive, but in the US none of the prices include sales tax, they're all broken out separately at checkout.

    I found this unreasonable and confusing until one day I read a conservative argument that this is actually a good thing, because it stops the government from increasing sales tax too much. It constantly reminds residents of how much extra they're paying for sales tax and encourages voting for politicians who will reduce sales tax if it's too high. Okay, it's a reasonable argument, I wasn't super against it anymore.

    It's fairly shocking to now see this happen, not even as a result of any law but just one of the biggest companies deciding to obey in advance.

  • by Filligree on 4/30/25, 11:28 AM

    The executive really shouldn't be interfering with private companies in this way. This is Amazon bowing to fears of retaliation. For what, giving customers true information?

  • by throw0101a on 4/30/25, 12:08 PM

    Someone made the observation that if the WH is proud of the tariffs and think they are good policy to bring back manufacturing (or whatever), then wouldn't they want their (according-to-them) awesome idea to be as widely publicized as possible?

    If tariffs are a good thing why not allow them to be 'advertised' that much more? Don't you want credit for the good idea you came up with?

  • by mdeslaur on 4/30/25, 11:51 AM

    So it's "political" to show tariffs, but it's not "political" to show sales tax?

  • by jqpabc123 on 4/30/25, 11:27 AM

    I guess they don't want consumers/voters to see how much China is paying???

    Time to wake up and smell the coffee --- tariffs are really a tax on *YOU* --- not China.

    No country has ever taxed it's citizens into greatness.

  • by nickjj on 4/30/25, 12:08 PM

    Politics aside, how could they decide not to show it?

    If something cost $50 yesterday and now suddenly it's $75 or $100 with no explanation wouldn't that make more people think it's inflation which in turn has its own set of negative impacts?

    No one is just going to blindly forget a massive price hike on a wide range of things.

    All this does is allow businesses to raise their prices arbitrarily and blame tarrifs on the side if anyone complains. Basically the same thing that happened with inflation after covid. I guess this explains why they are not showing it. If that's not the truth, that's ok. That's what happens when you're not transparent. People will make assumptions based on their beliefs.

  • by yalogin on 4/30/25, 12:14 PM

    I wonder if this “prostration” is a direct result of becoming too big as a company. I cannot imagine a company as big Amazon just succumbing to political pressure to their own detriment like this unless it benefits them somehow. The only way the government can help is through their kuiper project. If only Amazon was split into smaller groups then the store will not be beholden to the satellite internet group and AWS’ integrity wouldn’t be questioned, may be. Also if split each of them will be run by a different individual and so may be have more practical

  • by jjallen on 4/30/25, 12:08 PM

    A thought I had is that they shouldn't show the "impact", they should simply show the tariff that was paid for a given product. Let the consumers develop their own facts, knowledge and biases about the actual effect.

    They could also show the pre-tariff and post-tariff prices; that would be the most helpful thing. Or a price chart, which would be interesting ex-tariff.

  • by mortar on 4/30/25, 10:17 AM

  • by flyinglizard on 4/30/25, 11:57 AM

    It was not practical from the get-go, because showing how tariffs are affecting the consumer price requires to expose the supplier cost to buyers and I find it hard to believe sellers (or Amazon itself) would want that.

  • by typedef_struct on 4/30/25, 12:35 PM

    Amazon does not have this information, nor would a competitive seller wish to provider it. Who my suppliers are and what they charge? So what, Amazon can better decide whether to enter my market?

  • by senectus1 on 4/30/25, 12:43 PM

    4d chess. Amazon won no matter what.

    either WH says nothing and the values are shown.

    WH says something in outrage (like they did) and amazon backs down.. but its such big news that the awareness has been heightened. Now even the most rabid MAGAhead knows that this is going to cost them at the hip pocket, and knows that the WH knew, and used their power to shut amazon up.

    JB won this round.

  • by ChrisArchitect on 4/30/25, 2:36 PM

  • by irthomasthomas on 4/30/25, 1:56 PM

    If they wish to incentivize purchasing of domestic manufactured goods then surely they would welcome this? Consumers could see at a glance if they where buying American, or paying a penalty to buy foreign. I don't get the WH response.

  • by cjoelrun on 4/30/25, 12:48 PM

    How would showing this information help their business? Wouldn't you avoid purchasing if it might go down later?

  • by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on 4/30/25, 11:27 AM

    Cowards

  • by koolba on 4/30/25, 12:16 PM

    For years Amazon has refused to display a consistent “Made in ____” label on product pages. They also will not let you filter on (or exclude) country of origin.

    They’re free to do whatever they want, but it’s hardly some conspiracy theory. It’s just business. That includes deciding to or deciding not to show tariff impact on prices.

  • by niam on 4/30/25, 12:07 PM

    I wonder what the range of possible deals to be struck between Amazon and Trump includes, and/or whether this is the start of one.

    Though I agree with the prevailing notion that the simplest explanation would seem to be a mere concession to the Trump admin.

  • by bastard_op on 4/30/25, 6:18 PM

    Now we need a browser extension that DOES show the tariff impact on purchases. Inquiring minds want to know.

  • by 0xcb0 on 4/30/25, 11:55 AM

    Can we please just create a browser extension for this ??

    How else can we show the people that the Trump team is stealing their money, not china!

  • by apercu on 4/30/25, 11:51 AM

    Wow. Just wow. So much “masculine energy” all around.