ASA Adjudication on Amazon.co.uk Ltd

Ad

An e-mail from Amazon.co.uk stated "As a thank you for visiting our Music or MP3 stores this year, we'd like to give you an extra Christmas present: £3 to spend on anything in our MP3 Music Downloads store on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Visit us on December 25 or 26, then just add your chosen MP3 to your Shopping Basket (you need to use the Shopping Basket rather than 1-Click) and enter code FREEMP3S at the checkout--£3 will be deducted from the total ...".

Issue

Two complainants objected that the promotion was misleading, because when they attempted to take advantage of it on Boxing Day, a message stated that the code had expired.

CAP Code

Response

Amazon.co.uk (Amazon) said the promotion ran on Christmas Day and Boxing Day to promote its new MP3 download service; the promotion was originally advertised by e-mail and invited customers to download any MP3 and receive £3 off their order by entering the code "FREEMP3S" in the gift certificate space box at checkout.   They sent a copy of the terms and conditions of the offer which they pointed out included the conditions that the offer "may be changed or withdrawn without notice" and that the offer was "limited to one per customer".

Amazon said, on the first day of the two-day promotion (Christmas Day), one member of staff monitored the sales levels and associated chat forums to measure uptake and customer response.  They said they noticed forum threads which indicated that a system glitch permitted some customers to use the code repeatedly on the same account, giving them unlimited free downloads.  They said they took action but, by the time they had done, many customers had redeemed the discount code repeatedly, some more than 100 times, and news of the system bug had spread to a number of online forums.   They said that error was an unexpected system error they had not encountered with similar promotions in the past; they had tested for glitches before the promotion start date without experiencing any issues.

Amazon said in order to prevent customers from continuing to exploit the system bug to get multiple downloads, which contravened the promotion terms and conditions, they decided that they needed either to correct the bug or reconfigure the promotion to eliminate the code aspect all together.   They believed the fact the bug was detected on Christmas Day meant that the chance of rectifying the system issue quickly enough was slim, so they decided to change the mechanics of the promotion and remove the code element, but still give customers the same free download benefit as was offered under the original terms.  They said the promotion was therefore changed so that, rather than using a code for an instant £3 discount on a qualifying MP3 download, the customer would instead place the download order, pay in full, and then would be reimbursed £3 by no later than 9 January 2009 on the same payment card on which they placed the qualifying order.   They said the change of terms was prominently displayed on the MP3 home page, the page which the original promotion e-mail linked, and made clear that customers would "receive a refund of the amount actually spent up to a maximum of £3 applied to their credit or debit card by 9th January 2009".

Amazon said in order to notify customers of the change to the promotion, the messaging on the MP3 homepage to which the original promotion e-mail was linked, was updated to reflect the new promotion mechanics as soon as the change was live at 23.00 on Christmas Day.  They said they did not e-mail customers about the new promotion mechanics on Boxing Day for practical reasons.  They said the original e-mail had been sent to 2.8 million users over the course of two days (23 and 24 December), and argued that sending a change e-mail would have taken at least 24 hours.  They said the promotion changed at 11pm on Christmas Day and they believed a high percentage of the recipients would not have received their change notice until it was over or almost over because of the time it would have taken to send such a large number of e-mails out.  They also said many of their customers got their e-mail at a work address and would not have received the change e-mail until days after the promotion had ended.  They believed an e-mail change notice would have caused a great deal of confusion, and came to the conclusion that customers would be clearer about the change if they simply linked through from the original promotion e-mail to the MP3 homepage and were immediately met with the change of promotion messaging.  

They said the redemption levels on the promotion before and after the change of format remained high, and believed that indicated the change of promotion messaging was read and understood by a large number of customers.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted two complainants (and two members of one complainant's family) had not been able to take advantage of the offer when entering the code and had not been aware of the change in offer; they had therefore not purchased an MP3 download.  We noted the problems Amazon had encountered with customers making multiple purchases via the promotion and the steps they had taken to rectify them.  We considered that Amazon had had justifiable reasons for changing the promotion and had taken reasonable steps to ensure that customers were made aware of that change, by making a statement on the webpage to which the e-mail was linked.  We noted a large number of customers had taken advantage of the offer both before and after the mechanic changed and considered that Amazon had taken appropriate action to deal with the problem and to ensure customers were not disappointed; we concluded that the promotion did not breach the Code.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Sales promotion rules - Introduction) and 31.1 (Sales promotion rules - Administration) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)