Parler is suing Amazon after it followed through on its promise to remove the social media platform from its cloud hosting service, which occurred just before midnight on Sunday. Amazon said Parler violated its terms of service by failing to moderate and remove content that "encourages or incites violence against others" following last week's U.S. Capitol riot.

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• Citing similar concerns, Apple and Google have also removed the conservative mobile app from their stores. Amazon's move takes it one step further by taking Parler fully offline.
• In a lawsuit filed in Washington state federal court today, Parler accused Amazon of violating antitrust law. It's seeking an emergency order to overturn Amazon's shutdown of its account.
• Nevada-based Parler, which launched its platform in 2018, could take up to a week to find a new hosting service, Parler CEO John Matze said. He called it a "coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the marketplace."
• In an email, AWS told the platform that it had flagged nearly 100 posts that “clearly encourage and incite violence," including direct threats toward liberal leaders. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group made up of Amazon employees, praised Amazon's decision after saying that they "cannot be complicit in more bloodshed and violent attacks on our democracy."
• Parler's supporters argue that tech giants are impeding their freedom of speech, and some have threatened violence. In one Parler post cited by Axios, a user wrote that it would be "a pity if someone with explosives training were to pay a visit to some [Amazon] data centers."

Amazon has not removed President Trump and MAGA merchandise from its platform after rival Shopify announced the closure of Trump's official campaign store. Amazon has not specified whether it will restrict or remove sales of Trump-affiliated products.

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• An Amazon search for "Trump merchandise" showed nearly 1,000 results as of today. A MAGA search also returned a similar number of products. Trump-related merchandise also remains available on eBay.
• Shopify, an Amazon competitor, allows sellers to build their own online stores on its e-commerce platform. The Canadian company says it removed at least two stores linked to Trump, including the official one, because the president's recent actions violate Shopify’s “acceptable use policy."
• Amazon previously faced criticism for selling products linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which has faced bans by Etsy, Peloton, Facebook, and others.

An Amazon seller has sued California after the state froze her bank account and seized $2,300 due to uncollected sales tax. Isabel Rubinas, operator of online children's clothing store Lollipop Seeds, argues that California's tax department has unfairly targeted her and other third-party sellers to collect sales taxes before Amazon started collecting them in 2019.

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• Last week, Rubinas filed the civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, close to where she lives. It targets the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDFTA).
• She says California's decision to collect sales tax is "basically going to be the end of my business." In the lawsuit, Rubinas argues that the attempt to crush her store thousands of miles away is "because of what California tax officials did for nearly a decade and now need to clean up – they let Amazon avoid collecting taxes on most sales in Amazon’s store.”
• For years, the CDFTA and state lawmakers pressured Amazon and other e-retailers to collect sales taxes. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that states could require outside companies to collect taxes on sales to people who live in their state.
• The Online Merchants Guild, a non-profit trade association, supports Rubinas in the suit. It cited a letter written by California Treasurer Fiona Ma to Gov. Gavin Newsom, which said that such "tax collection is illegal and morally wrong for the state to be going after small businesses that seized the opportunity that Amazon and other online platforms presented.”

Thrasio, which acquires third-party Amazon businesses, raised an additional $500M in debt, bringing its total funding to more than $1B. The startup is the largest Amazon seller "rollup," a platform company that acquires or "rolls up" other companies in the same industry to create greater scale.

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• Thrasio buys up Amazon third-party and private-label businesses, as well as other direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands, and merges them into its own digital consumer goods platform. It surpassed $500M in sales and $100M in profits during 2020.
• It plans to use the new funding to acquire more companies, including businesses with higher revenues (up to $200M).
• Most of Thrasio's $1B was raised over the past six months. The $500M senior debt facility provides the startup with "significant firepower to continue its aggressive deal-making spree," according to Forbes.
• The debt financing was led by JPMorgan Chase Bank, The Private Credit Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and RBC Capital Markets, with participation from Bain Capital Credit, Barclays, BlackRock, BofA Securities, and others.

Amazon and other retailers are using algorithms to determine if it makes economic sense to process a customer's return or let them keep the product. The concept has been utilized more often during the pandemic as e-commerce sales continue to skyrocket.

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• Most of the online purchases deemed not worthy of returning are smaller and less expensive items. The number of e-commerce packages returned in 2020 grew 70% over 2019. Depending on the item, processing such returns can run between $10 and $20, not including freight.
• For retailers, it's significantly cheaper for customers to return items in a physical store. Amazon, Walmart, and others also allow customers to schedule times for delivery partners like FedEx to pick up returns at their homes.
• Amazon customer Jan Edmiston, for example, was refunded for a book she mistakenly ordered and didn't have to return it. “How much money is Amazon making to be able to absorb these mistakes?” she asked.
• About 25% of dark-web discussions about return fraud have focused on Amazon. The company's algorithms are more likely to flag possible fraud among newly opened, rather than older, accounts.

In case you missed it: Amazon has officially discontinued its Pantry service six years after it launched. Formerly known as Prime Pantry, the service allowed people to buy non-perishable groceries and other supplies that fit inside a standard-sized box.

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• Amazon said it decided to transfer its Pantry selection to the main Amazon platform, "so customers can get everyday household products faster, without an extra subscription or purchase requirement.”
• Prime Pantry made its debut in 2014 with a flat $5.99 shipping fee per box. Two years later, Amazon began offering a $5 per month subscription for unlimited Pantry orders every month, as long as they exceeded $40 apiece.
• The service has been eclipsed by Amazon's more recent grocery ambitions, including Fresh and Whole Foods delivery services for Prime members and its new Amazon Fresh-branded stores.

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• This company raised $9.3M to help orgs gift employees with glamping trips, Peloton bikes, and virtual sommelier lessons. Check out Blueboard's Experience menu.*
• Amazon plans to offer on-site COVID-19 vaccinations to ~20,000 warehouse and grocery employees in Washington state.
• Amazon Original Stories will release its Currency collection on Feb. 25 with eight original fictional stories by well-known authors.
• E-commerce checkout startup Bolt has hired former Amazon fulfillment executive Maju Kuruvilla as its CTO.
• Amazon announced plans to open two new Amazon Fresh grocery stores in Seattle and Bellevue, Wash.
• Over 30,000 companies are building their eCommerce apps all without writing a single line of code.*

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