Amazon Prime Promo Found Tricking Members To Sign Up

For years, Amazon has been accused of tricking users to sign up its Prime plan. Due to that, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has filed a rule that demands Amazon to stop its “likely to mislead” promo for Prime, potentially leading to tricking users into registering the unplanned service. In particular, during the checkout process, Amazon always offers vague options for users and makes them misunderstand the subscription promo.

According to some surveys, a lot of Amazon members had accidentally signed up the Prime plan without consent until they checked bank statements, especially those who live in the UK. In the meantime, Amazon cited data that shows how customers knew they had an option to complete the checkout without using Prime. In fact, there were only a few members who canceled it within 3 days after opting in the Prime at that page. As per the company, members who signed up but passed through the trial still took advantage of the Prime service afterward.

On the authorities’ side, they claimed that there was no evidence showing that users’ decisions were intentional when clicking on the Prime promo. In addition, they also raised questions over whether people had meant to continue using the Prime service when the trial was ended up.

As part of ASA’s decision, Amazon will not have to make any major changes but the company must present upcoming options more clearly.