Amazon Prime order button anticompetitive?

Online retailer Amazon was accused of failing to comply with statutory regulations through the design of the order button for Amazon Prime. The Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Cologne upheld a finding of breach of competition law.

Amazon logo

In addition to its trading platform, Amazon also offers a premium membership, so-called "Amazon Prime". During the ordering process, the customer came to a button with the text "Try free now – then chargeable".

The premium membership could then be tested free of charge for one month. After expiry of the month, EUR 7.99 per month was to be charged.

Against this, the Federal Association of Consumer Centres and Consumer Organisations brought an action. According to the association's view, the order button is not compliant with statutory law.

The court's decision

The OLG Köln decided by judgment of 03.02.2016 – Az. 6 U 39/15 that the order button for the Amazon Prime membership does not comply with statutory provisions.

The decision was justified on the grounds that statutory law prescribes that an order button must bear the words "order at cost" or contain some other correspondingly unambiguous wording. Amazon's design does not meet these requirements. Consumers are thereby not unambiguously informed that the order is linked to a payment obligation towards Amazon.

There is also a case of misleading conduct and thus a breach of competition law, since there is a risk that the consumer believes he is ordering only a free trial subscription and that the free test is only possible in a limited period – namely "now" – which is in fact not the case.

Conclusion

In order to protect consumers from hidden charges, they must be clearly informed during an order whether a payment obligation arises. So-called order buttons must be clearly labelled.