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ASA rules against Amazon on Prime

28.11.12 | Lisa Campbell

The Advertising Standards Authority has told Amazon it must change the wording of its Prime offer to customers after "misleading" them by describing delivery as "free".

Amazon offers customers a number of benefits if they sign up to its Prime membership for £49 a year. In that membership the company says it offers consumers "Unlimited FREE One-Day Delivery on all eligible orders." Claims on the right of the page also state: "Try Amazon Prime FREE for one month: Unlimited Free One-Day Delivery ... After your free trial, Amazon Prime is just £49/year".

But the ASA received a complaint from a customer who said because they had to pay £49 a year for the service, advertising delivery as "free" was "misleading".

The ASA held up the complaint and has ordered Amazon to change its wording.

The enforcement body said: "Although we understood Amazon's intention was to make clear that the one-day delivery could be used without charge after subscription, because members had to pay £49 before they could use the service we considered that the claim that one day delivery was 'free' was misleading."

It added: "The claim must not appear again in its current form. We told Amazon not to describe Prime one-day delivery as free."

 

• Advertising Standards Authority
• amazon
• Lisa Campbell