According to various sources, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is increasing the cost of its Prime subscription throughout European countries starting in September. In a recent email to customers, Amazon said that its yearly Prime cost will go from £79 to £95 beginning in September, and that in France, the cost will go from €49 to €69.90, which will be an increase of approximately 43%.
"This is the first time we have changed the price of Prime in the UK since 2014," wrote Amazon in an email to United Kingdom customers. "During this time, we have significantly increased the number of products available with unlimited, fast Prime delivery; added and expanded ultra-fast fresh grocery delivery; and added more high-quality digital entertainment, including TV, movies, music, games, and books."
Amazon's decision to increase yearly Prime subscriptions has come at a time during which customers are already feeling pressure from steadily rising inflation costs. In order to potentially curb the rising costs of yearly Amazon Prime subscriptions, Martin Lewis, consumer advocate and founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, suggested that Europeans ought to invest in the yearly Amazon Prime subscription payment before the September 15 increase.
Lewis also suggested that customers ought to cancel their subscriptions right now (before the price increase occurs) so as to maintain their current prices for their Amazon Prime subscriptions.
Though this Amazon Prime subscription price increase only occurred throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, Amazon did recently raise the price of Prime subscriptions in the United States for the first time in four years this past February. This yearly Prime subscription in North America went from $119 to $139, which means that it increased by about 17%.
Despite the fact that Amazon Prime is increasing its yearly cost, there are definite perks that it provides, such as free shipping on many items and limitless availability in terms of Prime Video.