Amazon's popularity hit after tax avoidance accusations

In an annual list that charts the popularity of brands in the UK, Amazon slipped from first to third this year.

According to the BrandIndex table by YouGov, Amazon dropped from 32.1 points to 24.1 as it suffered from the “tax avoidance debate”.

Sarah Murphy, director of BrandIndex, said Amazon “began to take a hit around the time of the parliamentary hearings”.

Amazon, along with US internet behemoth Google and coffee chain Starbucks , was hauled in front of MPs last month to answer questions on tax avoidance.

Google’s popularity has also been hit. It has fallen out of the popularity index’s top 10, reported The Telegraph.

John Lewis was ranked the second most popular brand with 24.6 points.  Earlier this month John Lewis boss Andy Street claimed that sales at department store chain had risen in light of the tax avoidance debate.

BBC’s iPlayer topped the rankings, while Marks and Spencer, Apple iPad, and Sainsbury’s all featured in the top 10.

A different set of 2,000 people every day were asked whether they had heard anything good or bad about brands through advertising, the media or word of mouth and scores were given for the number of positive mentions less the negative ones.