Amazon puts obstacles in the way of consumers who wish to unsubscribe from its Amazon Prime service. Today the Norwegian Consumer Council filed a legal complaint against the company for breaches of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
In the process of unsubscribing from Amazon Prime, the company manipulates consumers to continue using the service in what seems like a deliberate attempt to confuse and frustrate customers.
The Norwegian Consumer Council\’s legal complaint to the Consumer Protection Authority highlights what we believe to be Amazon´s unfair commercial practices and breaches of marketing law.
– It should be as easy to end a subscription as it was to subscribe in the first place. Amazon should facilitate a good user experience instead of hindering customers and tricking them into continuing paid services they do not need or want, said Director of Digital Policy at the Norwegian Consumer Council, Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad.
– In our view, this practice not only betrays the expectations and trust of consumers but breaches European law.
The Norwegian Consumer Council surveyed 1,000 Norwegian consumers and analysed their experience. One out of four Norwegian consumers reported difficulties unsubscribing from digital content services. Twenty-five percent of consumers surveyed reported that they pay for one or more subscriptions that they use with such infrequency that they might as well end the subscription.
– Most of us use digital content services to watch movies, listen to music or audiobooks, play video games, or read the news. At the same time, many consumers experience issues with subscriptions being very easy to sign up for, but difficult to get out of, said Finn Myrstad.
– Companies such as Amazon seem to speculate that they can discourage customers from cancelling their subscriptions either by heavily emphasizing the benefits that will be lost upon cancellation or by making the process so complicated that its users simply give up.
