Amazon's New Referral Fee Rules 2026: Will Your Cross-Border Fees Rise or Fall?

From 1 August 2026, Amazon is changing the way it works out referral fees on Amazon Business orders. In short, the fee will be based on your listed price, which Amazon calls the Fee Base Amount, rather than on what the buyer actually pays, the Sales Proceeds. If you sell across borders in Europe, that could nudge some of Your fee now follows the VAT of the store you list in, not the country your item ships to, so which way it moves depends on how those two compare. Here is what is changing, when it happens, and what it means for your margins, in plain English.

What is changing with Amazon's referral fees?

Amazon is bringing the referral fee on Amazon Business orders into line with the way normal customer orders are already worked out. The change sits in Clause S-4 of Amazon's Business Solutions Agreement, and it applies to Invoice by Amazon orders bought by Amazon Business EU S.à r.l., which is Amazon's European business-buyer arm.

From 1 August 2026, the fee on those orders is worked out from the Fee Base Amount rather than the Sales Proceeds. In everyday terms, an Amazon Business order will be charged the same referral fee as if a regular customer had bought the item.

When do the new rules start?

The change starts on 1 August 2026. Amazon published the update on 8 June 2026 in a Policy and Compliance notice in Seller Central.

There is nothing to sign and nothing to opt into. Amazon treats carrying on selling after 1 August as accepting the change, and it has put the updated agreement online in English if you want to read the exact wording.

What are the Fee Base Amount and Sales Proceeds?

These are simply the two figures Amazon can use as the starting point for your referral fee. This change swaps one for the other on the orders it affects.

• Fee Base Amount: based on your offer price at the store where the item is listed, so the German VAT-inclusive price if you list on Amazon.de, plus any shipping, gift wrap and similar charges. It follows the store you list in, not where your stock is held and not where the buyer is.
• Sales Proceeds: based on what the buyer actually pays. On a cross-border sale that reflects the VAT rate in the buyer's country, not your listing store, plus the same shipping and other charges.

The two only pull apart when the VAT rate where your buyer is differs from the VAT rate of the store you listed in. That is why this is really a cross-border story.

Who does this change affect?

If you only sell within one country, you can relax, nothing changes for you. This one matters if you sell across borders in Europe through Amazon Business and your buyer sits in a country with a different VAT rate to your listing store.

It is worth knowing this is not a new charge on every order. Regular customer cross-border orders already moved to this method back on 1 February 2024. The August 2026 change simply brings your Amazon Business orders into line, so the two are finally worked out the same way.

A simple example of the old fee versus the new fee

Amazon has shared three worked examples, all using an item listed on Amazon.de at €119, that is €100 plus 19% German VAT, with a 10% fee rate. They show the pattern clearly.

1. Selling at home, no change. The item is bought by a buyer in Germany. The buyer pays €119, and you carry on paying an €11.90 referral fee.
2. Selling into a higher-VAT country, the fee goes down. The item is bought by a buyer in Italy, where VAT is 22% (€100 + €22 VAT = €122). You currently pay €12.20 (10% × €122). From 1 August you pay €11.90 (10% × €119).
3. Selling into a lower-VAT country, the fee goes up. The item is bought by a buyer in Luxembourg, where VAT is 17% (€100 + €17 VAT = €117). You currently pay €11.70 (10% × €117). From 1 August you pay €11.90 (10% × €119).

The pattern is simple: your fee shifts towards the VAT-inclusive price of your listing store, whichever way that goes.

In short:

• Selling into a higher-VAT country than your listing store: your fee goes down.
• Selling into a lower-VAT country than your listing store: your fee goes up.
• Selling within the same country: no change at all.

So if you ship around Europe, it is a genuine mix. Some sales get a little cheaper, some a little dearer, and where you end up depends on where your orders go. A few cents a unit does not sound like much, but across thousands of cross-border orders it adds up, which is why it pays to know your own numbers. If you are weighing up the bigger picture too, our guide to how much it costs to sell on Amazon walks through the other fees that shape your margins.

Which orders are left out of the change?

Two kinds of order stay on the old calculation, which is handy to know if you run deals or sell to Amazon itself.

• Orders sold to other Amazon entities that are not Amazon Business EU S.à r.l.
• Orders that include a promotion. This covers a Lightning Deal, Coupon or Voucher, Buy One Get One, Money Off, Percentage Off, or an Amazon Funded Discount.

So any order carrying one of those promotions, and any order sold to another Amazon entity, stays on the current Sales Proceeds calculation and is not affected by this change.

What should you do before 1 August?

There is no need to panic, and there is plenty of time to get ahead of this rather than react to it. Three simple steps will tell you where you stand.

1. Map your cross-border mix. Pull your last 90 days of European Amazon Business orders and sort them by listing store and destination country. That shows you which sales get cheaper, which get dearer, and roughly by how much.
2. Check the margins on your tighter lines. Anywhere you ship into a lower-VAT country than your listing store, the fee is creeping up. If those lines are already tight, it is worth a look at your pricing before August.
3. Read the updated agreement. Amazon has put the revised Business Solutions Agreement online in English. It is worth having whoever runs your Seller Central account read Clause S-4 rather than rely on a summary.

None of this is dramatic, but it is exactly the sort of quiet change that is easy to miss when you are flat out running everything else. It sits alongside the other small things that quietly eat into margins, the kind we cover in our rundown of common Amazon seller mistakes. If you would rather not spend an evening in spreadsheets, keeping an eye on changes like this is part of what we do for the sellers we look after.

“The sellers who cope best with Amazon fee changes are the ones who check the impact on their own numbers before the change lands, not after the first affected payout drops. A few cents a unit sounds tiny until you multiply it across thousands of cross-border orders.”

— Bhumika Sharma, Marketplace Strategist, Kangaroo UK

Not sure what this means for your margins?

Our Amazon specialists can pull your cross-border numbers and show you which lines get cheaper and which get dearer before 1 August, so there are no nasty surprises on your first affected payout. It is a free account review, with a named person to talk to and no lock-in.

Talk to our Amazon specialists on 01530 560177 or email support@kangaroouk.com.