Anime News Network reports that a merchant group has been lobbying Anime Expo calling for a reversal to exhibit hall move-in policy changes this year. The merchants - mostly small and mid-sized dealers peddling anime, t-shirts, and other merchandise - stated that the new rules will increase costs to the point at which it will be nearly impossible to make a profit at the convention this year.

The central issue is a matter of modified "drayage" fees - the cost of moving items from the shipping dock outside to the exhibitor's booth inside. The convention policy changed from a "cartload" service, which allowed exhibitors to move items into the exhibition hall at reduced prices compared to the previous full drayage service.

New cartload limitations were imposed by IDG World Expo, the company handling the exhibit hall this year, raising vendors' costs significantly. A special one-way move-in price scheme has been made available to decrease exhibitors' costs, but the lobbying merchants claim that despite this rate, decreased cartload capacity ensures that their move-in/move-out costs will increase by as much as 200%.

The vendors claim that they were informed of the cartload system changes after the final deadline to confirm attendance. They would have lost their deposits if they had pulled out of their exhibition contracts. Some merchants will be decreasing the quantity of their available merchandise in order to reduce costs.

Neither Anime Expo's parent organization, the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, nor IDG World Expo, commented on the issue.