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More than 400 lawmakers from 34 international locations have signed a letter to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos backing a marketing campaign that claims the tech big has “dodged and dismissed … debts to workers, societies, and the planet,” organisers mentioned.
The Make Amazon Pay marketing campaign was launched on November 27, the annual Black Friday buying bonanza, by a coalition of over 50 organisations, with calls for together with enhancements to working situations and full tax transparency.
The letter’s signatories embody US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, former UK Labour Party chief Jeremy Corbyn and Vice President of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala, co-convenors Progressive International and UNI Global Union mentioned.
“We urge you to act decisively to change your policies and priorities to do right by your workers, their communities, and our planet,” the letter mentioned.
“We stand ready to act in our respective legislatures to support the movement that is growing around the world to Make Amazon Pay.”
Amazon, the world’s largest retailer, has confronted criticism for its tax practices earlier than, together with within the UK and the EU. It says its income stay low given retail is a extremely aggressive, low margin enterprise and it invests closely.
It mentioned on Thursday that whereas it accepted scrutiny from policymakers, lots of the issues raised within the letter stemmed from deceptive assertions.
“Amazon has a strong track record of supporting our employees, our customers, and our communities, including providing safe working conditions, competitive wages and great benefits,” it mentioned, including it was “paying billions of dollars in taxes globally.”
Amazon grew quickly through the pandemic, with gross sales hovering as restrictions to forestall the unfold of the coronavirus closed bricks-and-mortar retailers and despatched customers on-line.
Governments worldwide are contemplating more durable guidelines for large tech to assuage worries about competitors.
The European Union, for instance, final month charged Amazon with damaging retail competitors, alleging it used its dimension, energy and information to achieve an unfair benefit over smaller retailers that promote on its on-line platform.
Amazon disagreed with the EU assertions, saying it represented lower than 1 % of the worldwide retail market and there have been bigger retailers in each nation through which it operated.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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