Amazon gives in to the European Commission following a dialogue over consumer protection. The e-commerce giant will make it much easier to cancel Amazon Prime with a more visible and clear button.
The weather is good, but darkening for tech giants, although their earnings and market capitalizations are still at record highs. Following a dialogue with the European Commission and the European national authorities responsible for consumer protection, Amazon undertakes to comply with the various laws. The termination of Amazon Prime will therefore be facilitated and can be done in two clicks, with a visible and clear button.
A victory for consumer associations
At the origin of the dialogue between the two entities, there is a complaint filed “by the European Consumers’ Organization (BEUC), the Norwegian Consumer Council and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialoguewhich dates from April 2021 and which had been filed with the Commission.
The termination practices reported were mostly barriers to unsubscribing, “including complicated navigation menus, biased wording, confusing choices, and repeated nudges“. It’s quite ironic when Amazon’s Prime membership promotion page says in the center of the page: “Unsubscribe anytime“. On the contrary, subscribing to this service is very easy and very fast.
Source: European Commission
Source: European Commission
Source: European Commission
As the European Commission reports, Amazon Prime consumers “had to scroll through several pages with distracting information and unclear buttons“.
Unsubscribing from Amazon Prime will be easier
Likely to avoid lawsuits and risk losing a lawsuit, Amazon agreed to improve “its cancellation policy and implementing the changes starting today“. A statement welcomed by Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice.
Some changes have already been made, such as highlighting the termination button or shortening the explanatory text. The objective for the European Commission is to prevent consumers from being distracted “by the warnings and dissuaded from terminating“. Unsubscribing from Amazon Prime can now be done in two steps.
In the Commission’s press release, we learn that “Amazon has committed to implementing changes on all of its EU websites and for all devices“. She announces that she will monitor the commitments made by the e-commerce giant and compliance with European consumer law.
This BEUC victory is encouraging for consumer protection associations in Europe. Some of them have just filed a complaint against Google for non-compliance with the GDPR. These consumer groups accuse the firm of discouraging users of Google accounts from limiting the data they transmit.
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