Amazon blames inflation after increasing cost of Prime subscription

UK customers will see prices for an annual Prime subscription jump 20% from £79 to £95 a year, with the price jumping to £8.99 for those paying monthly. 

In Germany, Amazon’s biggest market outside the US, Prime subscription costs will jump 30%. In France Prime subscriptions will jump 43%, and subscriptions will also jump in Spain and Italy. 

All price increases are steeper than the 17% increase that US Prime members faced in February and will go into effect from September 15. 

A spokesperson attributed the move to “increased inflation and operating costs”.

The spokesperson noted it was the first time Amazon Prime membership had increased in the UK since 2014.

The Prime subscription price rises come as Amazon struggles to deal with soaring costs in its retail business – a result of supply chain strains, overstaffing and overexpansion of warehousing space during the coronavirus pandemic.

Operating costs for Amazon’s international business — excluding its AWS cloud division — increased in the January-March period from $29.4bn (£4.4bn) to $30bn (£25bn), with the segment swinging from a $1.3bn (£1.07bn) operating profit for the quarter in 2021 to a $1.3bn (£1.07bn) loss in 2022.

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