As the war in Iran plunged global energy markets into chaos, Amazon imposed a ‘fuel surcharge’ on sellers.

The war in Iran has hit global oil markets with a surge in U.S. gasoline prices. Amid rising transportation costs, Amazon has imposed a new 3.5% fuel surcharge on sellers using its distribution network. The policy is likely to impose significant new costs on sellers who rely on the e-commerce giant to sell their products.

Amazon said it will continue to evaluate potential policy changes as market conditions evolve, but it told TechCrunch that additional fees will likely be in place in the near future. This news was originally reported by Bloomberg.

“Rising fuel and logistics costs have increased operating costs across the industry,” a spokesperson said. “We have absorbed these increases to date, but like other major airlines, if costs continue to rise, we will implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs.” The spokesperson added that the surcharges were “meaningfully lower than the surcharges applied by other major airlines.”

The new policy goes into effect April 17 and will affect sellers using the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon service, Bloomberg wrote. Fulfillment By Amazon, commonly known as FBA, allows companies to send their products to Amazon warehouses, where they are packaged and shipped to buyers. Amazon doesn’t disclose how many sellers use FBA, but the program underpins the majority of third-party sales on the platform.

Amazon first enacted these types of surcharges in 2022. Not coincidentally, this was the last time crude oil traded above $100 per barrel. What happened in 2022? Russia just invaded Ukraine and threw energy markets into chaos. Today, the Iran war, sparked by the assassination of the top leader of the Trump administration and the Israeli government, has similarly shaken markets.

Iran is strategically located along its northern border in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow but important maritime route through which about 20% of the world’s oil supplies pass, and Iran has been trying to block shipping there, which has had a major impact on global energy prices.