Boycott Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Why Boycott Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Boycott Black Friday for the planet

The carbon cost of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is high. In 2023 it was estimated that 429,000 tonnes of CO2 would be admitted into the atmosphere from product deliveries on Black Friday. This is equivalent to over 4 billion miles driven by an average gasoline-powered car.

According to logistics company Optoro, returning items bought during the sales used over 1.2 billion gallons of diesel and emitted 12 million metric tonnes of CO2 in the US alone.

Clothing, accessories, electronics and cosmetics are among the most popular Black Friday purchases.

It has been estimated that 80% of electronics and clothing, plus the plastic packaging they are wrapped in, end up in landfill, incineration, or at best low-quality recycling after a very short life.

We are not cutting consumption fast enough to avoid climate meltdown. When it comes to the impact of consumer goods on the planet, repairing, choosing second-hand, and when necessary buying from more sustainable brands is the way to help close the climate gap.

Black Friday is taking us in the opposite direction of where we need to be heading, encouraging the purchase of brand new things we probably don’t even need.

Boycott Black Friday for our public services

In 2023 a staggering $9.5 billion (£7.5 bn) was spent in a single day in the US and that is just online. In the UK, Black Friday sales reached an estimated £13.3 billion in 2023. The majority of this money went to large companies - and in particular, Amazon, which made 17.7% of all sales. Amazon has a track record of gross tax avoidance. Smaller companies, which pay their due taxes tend to have a much smaller cut from Black Friday sales and they often don’t even take part in the event (see small business section below).

Our public services rely on taxes. By giving your money to smaller, independent companies you increase the likelihood that part of that money doesn’t end up in an offshore account or in an already rich person’s pocket but it provides crucial funding to our public services.

Boycott Black Friday because of Amazon

Amazon is largely credited for the rise of Black Friday in the UK, after it started promoting the event here in 2010.

Ethical Consumer has called for a boycott of Amazon since 2012, in response to its prolific tax avoidance. Fair Tax Mark named Amazon as having “the poorest tax conduct” of the six major tech companies in 2019 – a big deal in a sector known for tax avoidance.

Amazon UK shifts lots of its money into a subsidiary in the well-known tax haven of Luxembourg, meaning that it is able to get away with paying little or no tax. 

Since Amazon’s sales soared since the beginning of the pandemic, Ethical Consumer has estimated that the company's tax avoidance could have cost the UK economy nearing half a billion pounds each year. According to research by Ethical Consumer, over the previous 10 years Amazon was thought to have avoided around £2.8 billion in UK corporation tax through artificial tax arrangements.

Amazon scores 0/100 in our shopping guides and we dedicated an entire issue of our magazine to Amazon alternatives last year to help people find ways to avoid using it.

Plus, we have published a list of ethical alternative gift vouchers, for people who wish to avoid Amazon vouchers.

What is the #MakeAmazonPay campaign?

Tax isn’t the only problem with Amazon – it’s also under fire for issues around workers’ rights, union busting, and its carbon impacts.

The Make Amazon Pay coalition launched in November 2020 and a broad range of unions and civil society organisations have joined worldwide, including Greenpeace, Tax Justice Network, Amazon Workers International and Ethical Consumer.

October 2023 saw the first Make Amazon Pay summit in Manchester. Amazon's fired up workers, campaigners and union officials gathered to share their passion to make Amazon pay their workers, their taxes and for the damages it poses on the environment.

Since 2021, Black Friday witnessed strikes, protests and solidarity actions across Amazon’s transcontinental supply chain, with workers in multiple countries striking in large numbers at the same time for the first time.

Campaigners in over 30 countries will be taking action on 29th November 2024. You can use the Make Amazon Pay website to view protests and events taking place. 

You can also let the company know you're boycotting it by cancelling your Amazon Prime subscription on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Hey @amazon

We're boycotting you this Black Friday to highlight your unethical and exploitative business practices, in solidarity with workers across the globe #BoycottAmazon #BoycottBlackFriday #MakeAmazonPayhttps://t.co/myGtzuPyF5

— Ethical Consumer (@EC_magazine) 

Boycott Black Friday to support small businesses

It’s impossible for most small companies to offer discounts of the same size as larger companies, and promote them as heavily too.

The British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) takes a firm stance against the event. BIRA states that 86% of independent retailers refused to participate in the Black Friday sales last year. Many smaller companies even shut down their websites for the day in protest.

Clothing brand THTC doesn't lower its prices for Black Friday. In previous years it has doubled the price of its products with the extra money going towards charitable causes, and planted a tree with every sale made on Black Friday. Y.O.U. underwear also plants a tree for every order made during the Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales.

Karma Drinks, a Best Buy in our soft drinks guide, has previously raised its prices by £5 throughout the sales period, with the money going to charity.

Since 2018 Best Buy Lucy & Yak, instead of putting on sales, has been donating to the Fior Di Loto Foundation which provides life-changing education for girls living in the villages surrounding Pushkar in Northwest India, where its factory is located.

Which companies will profit from Black Friday?

Amazon will be cashing in on the sales (see above for more information about Amazon). Here we examine the ethics of just another couple of tax-avoiding companies that are partaking in the sales this year.

Apple

Apple scores 0/100 for Tax Conduct, with subsidiaries in the tax havens including Ireland and the Netherlands.

It also scores 0/100 in our Workers category for reasons including taking no adequate steps to address the issue of living wages in its supply chain. Meanwhile its highest paid director received $63 million (£46.5m) in compensation in 2023.

Read more about Apple.

Boohoo

Yet another 0/100 points for Tax Conduct was received by Boohoo, owner of brands including Boohoo, boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, MissPap, Karen Millen and Coast. It’s incorporated in tax haven Jersey despite most of its operations being on the UK mainland and its main offices being in Manchester.

One of the company's directors, John Lyttle, was paid over £1.3m in 2023. Boohoo also scores 0/100 in our Sustainable Materials and Cotton sourcing categories.

Read more about Boohoo.

Sony

Sony Corporation scored 0/100 for Tax Conduct due to having high risk holding companies in well-known tax havens including Bermuda, Hong Kong, and Panama.

It scores 0/100 for Workers, and hasn’t taken adequate steps to achieve living wages in its supply chain. At the same time its highest paid director was paid 93 million Japanese yen (about £3m).

Read more about Sony Corporation.

Will we ever see the end of Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

This year over the course of the weekend UK shoppers are expected to spend a total of £3.8bn according to Finder. This is a 27% increase from 2023.

Keep Britain Tidy found that across the UK 16.6 million (31%) agree they 'hate’ Black Friday and 14.5 million (27%) would join a boycott. However, research also shows that the otherwise environmentally savvy Gen Z and millennials are most likely to spend. Unfortunately it looks like there’s still a lot of life in Black Friday and Cyber Monday.