Amazon says it never planned to display how much tariffs are contributing to the price of goods on its main website, despite Punchbowl News reporting earlier on Tuesday that the e-commerce giant planned to do so.
But the company's denial didn't come quickly enough to prevent powerful political figures from trying to capitalize on the report.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the idea a "hostile and political act," saying Amazon should have displayed cost increases caused by inflation during then-President Joe Biden's term.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, publicly called on other companies to do the same in remarks on the Senate floor.
"To the large businesses that sell to consumers, I say: Show your customers how much tariffs are hurting in their pocketbooks," he said. "People deserve to know the impact tariffs have on their finances."
Doing so, Schumer said, would generate public pressure that would give companies a "chance to get rid of these tariffs, which are so stultifying their ability to move forward."
Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, after initially decrying the reported move, said that it would at least help consumers more easily see which goods are imported from abroad and allow them to buy American-made goods.
Ahhh come on Amazon!!
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 29, 2025
I was getting so excited about the Amazon tariff tracker so I could avoid buying anything from China!!
Americans want to buy American and you were finally going to give us a way to know which products and companies were selling slave labor made goods from… pic.twitter.com/c1yaW2IAQm
CNN reported President Donald Trump called Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, to complain. The Amazon founder has become closer to Trump in recent months, including occasionally dining with the president.
Even if Amazon doesn't plan to display the cost of tariffs on its website, the prospect of an e-commerce giant doing so helped reignite what's become a fierce debate in Washington.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats are nearly unanimously opposed to Trump's tariffs. A handful of Republicans have also spoken out, and seven GOP senators have signed on to a bill to limit the president's tariff powers.
Earlier this month, the Senate passed a resolution to block Trump from imposing tariffs on goods from Canada, though the measure has no path to becoming law.
"I don't think I have advice for companies about whether they should show a tariff tax or anything like that," Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia told Business Insider on Tuesday.
But he said that companies "being candid about the effect" of tariffs could spur a change in policy, even as some companies fear retaliation or hope to secure exemptions.
"Nobody wants to be out there trashing the tariffs and then applying for an exception because they're so worried Trump will retaliate against them," Kaine said. "That speaks volumes about where we are in our politics right now."
Peter Cohan, associate professor of management at Babson College and a venture capitalist, told BI that the pricing transparency could help "customers understand why prices were going up."
"Now," Cohan said, "customers will have less information for deciding whether Amazon is more efficient than its rivals."
