Amazon 'Free Trial' Advert Banned By Watchdog

A regulator has banned a direct mailing advert offering a "free trial" of Amazon's Prime delivery service, ruling it misled consumers on subscription fees.

The decision by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) followed complaints a card offering a "30-day free trial" was not sufficiently clear that a paid subscription would start automatically if not cancelled during the trial period.

They also said the ad for the instant video element of Prime did not state the cost of the subscription.

The letter read: "Dear (recipient's name), I'm sending you this letter because I want you to know that you are eligible for a free trial of Amazon Prime ... Start your 30-day free trial today and watch as much as you want ... That's all there is to it ..."

Small text at the bottom of the letter said: "Paid subscription starts automatically after free trial unless cancelled."

Amazon Europe said the ad repeatedly said the "free" element of the trial was time-limited and, on all but one of the occasions on which the word "free" was used, it was preceded by "30-day".

The company also pointed out it was common practice for free trials for services to convert to a paid subscription unless cancelled, and that consumers would understand and expect that they had to cancel within the free period if they did not want to start a paid subscription.

The ASA decided a paid subscription starting automatically at the end of the trial was a commitment and a significant condition of the "free" offer, and should therefore be made clear to consumers.

It said: "We did not consider that it was sufficient to include the information about the automatic paid subscription in the small print of the ad only and therefore did not consider that that information was sufficiently prominent to make clear the extent of the commitment consumers must make to take advantage of the offer.

"We concluded the ad was likely to mislead."

The ASA said the ad was also misleading for not saying that a subscription to Amazon Prime cost £79 a year or that the charge for Amazon Prime Instant Video was £5.99 a month.

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.