[godtoldmetodoit]

Tons of 3rd party sellers use the Fulfilled by Amazon program where they have Amazon store and handle all logistics on their items.

It's not cheap, and iirc cost increases over time. Amazon doesn't want their warehouses full of shit that doesn't move.

If the 3rd party stops paying and doesn't want to pay to have it shipped back to their own facility, then they need to get rid of it.

[cosmie]

Amazon also charges for the disposal itself[1]. Although they're likely not going to receive payment from delinquent accounts, it's something sellers in good standing have to account for.

Amazon charges a monthly storage fee[2]. If your inventory hasn't moved within a year, you'll start getting charged a supplemental long-term storage fee[3] on top of that.

If you want Amazon to ship the inventory back to you, there's a removal fee[4] for that. Or Amazon can get rid of it for you, but there's a disposal fee[1] for that. And the fees for both options are actually the same, the deciding factor is really just whether you want to keep control over it (and have the capacity to receive/store it somewhere) or you want to pay Amazon to take it off your hands entirely (at which point they can do what they want with it).

... thinking about it, I wonder if this is how counterfeits end up working their way into the official "Sold by Amazon" supply chain.

[1] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/G5FKTA8LXU...

[2] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/help.html?...

[3] https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/help.html?...