Who: Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Amazon Europe Core Sarl t/a Amazon.co.uk (Amazon)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 6 August 2025
Law stated as at: 22 September 2025
What happened:
The ASA considered that the way the choices available to consumers to proceed with a purchase were presented on Amazon’s website was unclear, and therefore, misleading.
An Amazon.co.uk webpage, which formed part of the checkout process, promoted free “30 days of Prime, including Prime Video”, originally at a cost of £8.99. It also stated, “Try Prime for free and watch our best shows. You can cancel anytime”. In the middle of the page, there were three boxes:
- A box with a grey background, titled “Prime Video Only” at “£5.99/month”. At the bottom of the box, a white button stated “Order without Prime. Decline free trial” (the Grey Box).
- A larger, more prominent box with a white background and a blue outline, titled “Prime Video with Prime”, featuring a cartoon of a laptop with a moving fish and a blinking cat, and text stating “INCLUDED” in green. At the bottom of the box a yellow button stated, “Continue with Prime” with smaller text underneath stating, “Pay after 30 days” and “After your 30-day free trial, Prime is just £8.99/month” (the White Box).
- A third box featured an image from a film on Prime Video that referred to Amazon Prime terms and conditions.
Complainants believed that the presentation of the options was unclear and challenged whether the ad was misleading.
Average consumer
First, the ASA assessed the page in context, from the perspective of the average, reasonably well‑informed, observant and circumspect consumer. Amazon said that the webpage was only shown to Amazon customers with an existing payment method on their account. It contended that the average consumer visiting that webpage would:
- be reasonably experienced in shopping online;
- be familiar with the way in which Amazon presented its options to proceed with a purchase on its site;
- have understood the main membership benefits included in Prime (such as Prime Video); and
- have understood that Prime (after the free trial) would cost more than a Prime Video-only subscription.
The ASA agreed that such a consumer would have reasonable experience and knowledge of shopping online and varying degrees of familiarity with Amazon’s site. However, they would not necessarily be reasonably well-informed about the “features” of the Prime service or the layout of Amazon’s webpages.
Consumer journey preceding the ad
The ASA understood that, first, consumers would choose the desired items via the yellow “Add to basket” button, then choose the option “Fast FREE Delivery” with Prime and finally click the “Proceed to Checkout” button (also in yellow). Despite not selecting Prime delivery, the ad for a free trial of Prime then appeared on the next checkout page.
Webpage featuring the ad
The ASA considered that many consumers landing on this page, having clicked the “Proceed to Checkout” button would expect the page to be part of the checkout process, not a further ad for Prime. The only buttons available to the consumer were in the White Box (headed “Prime Video with Prime” with a yellow button) and the Grey Box (headed “Prime Video Only £5.99/month” with a white button stating “Order without Prime”. Decline free trial”). Those with previous experience of seeing similar ads for Prime, would understand from the heading on the page, “30 days of Prime, including Prime Video”, that it was an ad for Prime and would either (i) click the yellow button in the White Box (if they wanted Prime, including Prime Video), or (ii) turn to the Grey Box.
Many consumers would disregard the heading in the Grey Box and click the “Order without Prime” button to complete their purchase. Others, however, would see the heading in the Grey Box and click the “Order without Prime” button, believing that, because of the “Prime Video Only £5.99/month” heading, it enabled them to sign up to Prime Video (without Prime), when in fact it meant not only no Prime, but no Prime Video either.
In addition, to many, the White Box would in fact appear more attractive, as, because of the free-trial offer, it looked like a way of avoiding any immediate additional cost or fee.
Some, who wanted neither option, might have left the page and abandoned their purchase.
Amazon said that only a small minority of consumers who saw the webpage in March 2024 chose the “Continue with Prime” option, while the majority selected the “Order without Prime” button. Due to a lack of data, Amazon could not say how many abandoned their purchase, but contended that doing so was neither a transactional decision not to purchase, nor did it occur because of the way the page was presented. The ASA acknowledged this, but said that because it had not seen the underlying data, it did not know who saw the ad, how many people cancelled after initially choosing Prime, and whether the majority who did not select the “Continue with Prime” button then chose the “Order without Prime” button (perhaps under the misapprehension that it was for Prime Video only) or abandoned the page all together. It stressed that the average consumer test was not a statistical test and that the ASA applies judgement to assess the typical reaction of the average consumer on a case-by-case basis.
The ASA concluded that the choices offered were presented in a confusing manner, and were likely to mislead, including by steering consumers into making a transactional decision that they would not have made otherwise. This included consumers not used to navigating the layout of Amazon’s Prime ads who:
- selected the “Continue with Prime” button believing it would allow them to continue to complete their purchase without any immediate additional costs;
- selected the “Order without Prime” button believing they would also get a subscription to Prime Video only; or
- abandoned their purchase altogether.
Why this matters:
With the unfair commercial practices provisions under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) now in effect, the ASA will have regard to the relevant section of the DMCCA whenever it considers whether a marketing communication misleads consumers and is therefore a breach of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing (CAP Code). Under the DMCCA, marketing communications are misleading if they are likely to deceive consumers and are likely to cause consumers to take transactional decisions that they would not otherwise have taken. Marketers should ensure that their consumer journeys do not mislead and present consumers with clear options.
