Amazon have fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for their add on products and the way they advertised free delivery
There are some products which only qualify for free delivery if they form part of an order valued at £20 or above. However it’s claimed that it wasn’t made clear enough that the £20 order total had to be made up from products sold by Amazon or third party products fulfilled by Amazon.
It is possible to have an Amazon order totalling over £20 with products from third party sellers offering free delivery in which case the add on items still wouldn’t qualify for free delivery.
The ASA noted that Amazon’s delivery charges were complex but also stipulated that the cost of delivery would form part of a buyer’s decision making process when adding items to their shopping basket.
The ASA’s code stipulates that “if delivery charges could not reasonably be calculated in advance, ads must state that such charges were payable”. The ASA also concluded that Amazon’s hyperlinked “About FREE Delivery” web page contradicted the free delivery for orders over £20 messaging as it excluded items from 3rd party sellers possibly after the buyer had made a purchasing decision.
The ASA concluded “the ads did not make sufficiently clear which items were eligible for free delivery, and under what terms, and that they were therefore misleading”.
This won’t mean Amazon have to change their delivery offers. Just that they’ll have to change the advertised wording around add on products.
