Overview
- The Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe ruled on Thursday that the AGB clause Amazon used to raise Prime fees in September 2022 violated Germany’s transparency rule and is legally ineffective.
- Amazon said it will temporarily revert to the old Prime prices for customers whose subscriptions began before 15 September 2022 and have remained unchanged, and it will notify those members before their next payment.
- The company will not automatically refund past overpayments; affected customers can either file individual refund claims (subject to the normal three‑year limitation) or join the Verbraucherzentrale NRW’s Sammelklage at the Oberlandesgericht Hamm.
- About 145,000 people have already registered in the government Klageregister to join the Sammelklage, which seeks restitution back to the 2022 increase and remains open for further entries.
- The BGH decision rests on §307 BGB’s transparency requirement and sets a binding precedent that is likely to strengthen challenges to similar unilateral price‑increase clauses at other subscription and streaming services.