Amazon Prime membership fees see double-digit rise in five European countries: full details

Amazon Prime customers in five European countries learned on Tuesday that they were facing double-digit price increases for the platform’s expedited delivery service. Amazon said the increases were due to rising operating costs as fuel prices soared. From mid-September, customers in France will have to pay 43% more for an annual subscription. The Italians face a rise of 38.6%, the Spaniards 30.3% and the British and Germans 20%.

The hikes bring the price of Prime, which in addition to fast delivery includes access to its Prime Video service, to EUR 49.90 (around Rs. 4,000) in Italy and Spain. It will be EUR 89.90 (around Rs 7,300) in France and Germany, and GBP 95 (around Rs 9,150) in Britain.

That leaves the service less expensive than in the US, where it rose 17% earlier this year to $139 (around Rs 11,100) a year.

In February, Amazon announced it was raising the price of its annual US Prime subscriptions as it sought to offset rising shipping costs and wages it expected to persist this year.

With more than 200 million members worldwide, Prime encourages consumers to direct their purchases more to Amazon. This way, they get the most out of their subscriptions. At the time, the company had not announced any changes for Prime members outside of the United States.

Although the price increases are well above inflation, analysts believe the service costs Amazon far more than it charges and is used to attract and retain customers.

Business intelligence firm Foxintelligence estimated last year that European Prime members bought on average twice as much on Amazon as non-members.

A handful of angry customers announced their intention to cancel the service on Twitter.

However, Amazon representatives in France were unfazed.

“What we’ve seen in the US is that there hasn’t been an opt-out push as more and more services are offered through Prime and that still allows consumers to realize very significant savings,” the firm said.

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