Amazon is Raising Prime Prices in Europe Dramatically

Amazon alerted customers that it will raise its annual fee for Prime by up to 43 percent in the EU and by 20 percent in the UK due to inflation and other costs. There’s online retailer had previously raised the price of Prime in the U.S. back in February.

“Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime,” an Amazon email reads. “We are writing to you about an upcoming change to your membership.” The price increases will begin with renewals that start on September 15.

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Amazon’s U.S. price increase aimed to help offset shipping higher shipping costs and wages, the firm said at the time. But this one is a bit different: Amazon is blaming inflation and “operating costs.” Reuters reports that the retailer is facing investor pressure ahead of its earnings announcement this week to shore up costs.

The price increase varies by country. Germany, for example, will see the price of Prime rise by 30 percent, while customers in Spain, Italy and France will see Prime membership prices rise between 39 percent and 43 percent, with France seeing the biggest price increase. The price of Prime is also going up 20 percent in the UK; as Amazon notes, this is the first time it has changed the price of Prime in the UK since 2014.

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Conversation 18 comments

  • SherlockHolmes

    Premium Member
    26 July, 2022 - 9:53 am

    <p>Im not an Amazon customer. And Im not planing to become one. </p>

    • mattbg

      Premium Member
      26 July, 2022 - 10:21 am

      <p>Nor am I. Why do people write articles that don’t apply to me?</p>

      • SherlockHolmes

        Premium Member
        26 July, 2022 - 10:34 am

        <p>lol. Nice. I wasnt thinking of that 😛 </p>

  • mikegalos

    26 July, 2022 - 10:32 am

    <p>I don’t know about the EU nations but I checked the UK price increase and it is roughly covering the devaluation of the UK Pound compared with the US Dollar over the last year. </p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      26 July, 2022 - 1:57 pm

      <p>Given fuel prices have risen over 30% in the last few months, it is hardly a surprise, unfortunately. I don’t like it and might think about cancelling my subscription next year – gas prices are supposed to rise by up to 300% this winter, for example, so there maybe more important things to spend money on…</p>

      • mikegalos

        26 July, 2022 - 2:05 pm

        <p>It’s not even covering inflation over things like gas prices. It’s the fact that the GB Pound has lost about that much value compared with the Dollar. If people in the UK were being billed in Dollars the price would have gone up about 3%. The rest is all just how badly the Pound has been doing and how well the Dollar has been doing.</p>

      • mike2k

        26 July, 2022 - 3:51 pm

        <p>300%. Who told you that? 🤣</p>

        • wright_is

          Premium Member
          27 July, 2022 - 4:02 am

          <p>A government warning, back in June. Average gas bill for a normal household, that heats with gas is likely to increase from around 1,200-1,500€ a year to around 4,500€. </p><p><br></p><p>Households and businesses are being told to reduce gas consumption by at least 15% this coming winter. Russia reduced the flow of gas into Europe to around 65% already and could reduce it to 10% or less, before we go into Autumn. Germany is busy building gas docks, to ship gas in from the USA and the Middle East, but that will be more expensive and won’t be available in time for the beginning of winter. </p><p><br></p><p>We will struggle, households are being told to reduce temperatures in the house by 1C or to 20C and not to heat rooms that aren’t being used. We already heat to 19-20C and the rooms we don’t use are on the frost setting – it won’t hear the radiator, unless the pipes are about to freeze – so there is no real potential for us to save on our gas consumption, we were already at the recommended lowest level. We have also already reduced our hot water temperature from 60C to 52C ( Legionnaires disease lives up to 50C, so we are now at the lower end of what is safe). </p>

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    26 July, 2022 - 11:25 am

    <p>Ouch. That’s a huge price increase. With inflation, I bet there will be a sizeable portion of people cancel.</p>

  • nbplopes

    26 July, 2022 - 12:07 pm

    <p>Ops. Going to cancel it. I’m subscribing because of one or two series here and there. The App itself is not that good on Apple TV … slow and clunky.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    26 July, 2022 - 2:28 pm

    <p>I wonder what the value in Amazon Prime really is? I thought it was for great shipping terms. However for me that hasn’t been true for a while. I usually see 5 day quotes and if its prime maybe 1 day earlier. Not a big incentive for me, but I am a rural customer so perhaps that is distorting my value lens.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • Jennifer-Bond

    26 July, 2022 - 3:41 pm

    <p>I’ve been with Prime for years but it’s no longer worth it, they’re getting far too greedy, combine that with items serviced/sent by them arriving obviously returned or exchanged and I’m done.</p>

  • drakowski

    26 July, 2022 - 3:59 pm

    <p>And I’m sure it has nothing to do with the way EU regulators go after Amazon. Nope, not at all. ;)</p>

  • iAlrakis

    Premium Member
    26 July, 2022 - 6:58 pm

    <p>+20€ per year is significant. </p><p>Accepting it for now but not sure about next year yet.</p>

  • derekabraham

    26 July, 2022 - 8:39 pm

    <p>I will take Germany as an example. Prime becomes 8.99 EUR/month when the hikes become effective. Compare this with the basic Netflix plan, which is 7.99 EUR/month (premium with 4K content is 17.99 EUR/month) or any other streaming service (Disney, Apple TV). Given Amazon’s catalog might not boast things like Stranger Things on Money Heist, it is still not a bad collection. Now consider Amazon Music, and things start to look better. Instead of looking at the price hike, it would have been better to check how it fares compared to others.</p>

  • Saarek

    28 July, 2022 - 8:53 am

    <p>I wish they’d go back to offering a shipping only option, I never use any of the other Prime fluff and don’t intend to. </p>

  • Rallicat

    28 July, 2022 - 1:44 pm

    <p>I was on a monthly plan, but have now switched to annual. This has bagged me a year of prime at the old, pre-rise annual rate. If you’re on prime and are thinking of sticking with it (I make too much use of Prime Video and Music), then I’d recommend investigating!</p>

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