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Amazon vs. consumers on the Aussie shutout
Fri, 1st Jun 2018
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Amazon has released a statement concerning their withdrawal of shipping of items from Amazon's US stores into Australia.

“As a result of changes to Australian GST law on 1 July, international shopping options for Australian customers will change,” says an Amazon Spokesperson.

“While we regret any inconvenience this may cause customers, we have had to assess the workability of the legislation as a global business with multiple international sites. Based on our assessment, we will redirect Australian customers from our international sites to amazon.com.au where they can shop for products sold by Amazon US on the new Global Store, available today.

“This will allow us to provide our customers with continued access to international selection and remain compliant with the law which requires us to collect and remit GST on products sold on Amazon sites that are shipped from overseas.

According to information on Amazon's website, the global store enables shoppers to browse items available internationally, which are then shipped from countries outside of the US.

“The Global Store will allow Australian customers to shop on amazon.com.au for over four million items that were previously only accessible from amazon.com,” the spokesperson says.

“This selection is in addition to the more than 60 million products already available on amazon.com.au across 23 categories, including books, fashion, toys, and electronics.

The news that Amazon US would be closing its virtual doors to Australian shoppers was originally met with less than favourable responses by Aussie consumers.

Some people are questioning why Amazon couldn't just add the GST to purchases destined for Australia.

While others are taking the chance to remind everyone of the value of buying from local retailers.

This battle between global corporate giant and OECD country government is certainly going to have ramifications beyond just Australia as consumers in countries from across the globe will be keeping an eye on the outcome.