In compliance with RBI’s recent notification/mandate on recurring transactions, Amazon has declared to discontinue the one-month plan for its Amazon Prime subscription.
The mandate includes temporary suspension of free trial services and introductory pricing facilities for users in India, in addition to pausing new signups of auto-renewing subscriptions.
RBI has clarified that doing so would improve users’ safety and convenience, reducing fraudulent practices.
Amazon Stops One-Month Prime Subscription
Amazon Prime membership subscription, until now was provided for periods of one month, three-month or one year.
The membership for its one-month period, set at Rs 129/month, has now been cancelled by Amazon, in compliance with the Reserve Bank of India mandate, more on which will be covered further in the article.
To inform its users, Amazon has updated the same on its ‘Terms and Conditions’ page.
Furthermore, Amazon has also temporarily stopped new member sign-ups for Amazon Prime free trial, starting April 27.
Currently, users can choose to buy or renew Amazon’s Prime membership only for three month or annual subscription, priced at Rs 329 and Rs 999, respectively.
What is RBI’s New Mandate on Recurring Transactions?
According to RBI’s notification, “automatic transactions will have to go through Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for the first transaction, as well as subsequent successive transactions, subject to certain conditions”.
This means such recurring transactions will have to be manually authenticated via a one-time password (OTP), at least when they are being set up.
The new rule calls for an additional layer of authentication for recurring transactions via credit cards, debit cards, UPI, and other prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) including digital wallets.
This new RBI framework was originally announced in August 2019 and an extended deadline of September 30, 2021 has been set for banks and financial institutions, to prevent any kind of inconvenience to customers.