AMAZON is scrapping a perk that allows shoppers to share their Amazon Prime membership with someone outside their household.
The “Prime Invitee” perk, which allowed members to share Prime perks with someone not living with them, is coming to an end on October 1.
Amazon Prime members will no longer be able to share their memberships with those outside their household[/caption]
Amazon is now touting its new program “Amazon Family“, which only allows membership sharing in the same household.
Back in June, Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, hinted to the outlet Fortune that a crackdown on membership sharing was coming.
He said: “Prime is meant for the household.
“Our membership is different to a lot of other memberships in that it is purposely meant for household individuals living together.”
Amazon will offer a limited-time Prime deal to those who will be impacted by the switch, per USA Today.
The offer includes 12 months of Prime for $14.99 and will be available until December 31.
This deal will also be made available to those who enrolled in the invitee program between 2009 and 2015.
AMAZON FAMILY
The new Amazon Family plan allows Prime perk sharing for up to one adult, four teens or four children.
The rules state that these teens must have been added to Amazon Prime before April 7, 2025.
This gives members sharing access to things like Prime Video with ads, Prime Reading and exclusive Prime events.
Amazon Family also allows one adult to share a user’s Amazon Music Prime benefit.
This means that two people can use the platform ad-free when using shuffle mode.
To sign up for Amazon Family, find the “Share your Prime Benefits” on the website.
Then, customers select “Manage Your Amazon Family” to send invitations to Amazon Family members.
Amazon Family
Amazon is cracking down on membership sharing with those outside a user’s household.
The company is now bringing in Amazon Family, which allows users to share perks strictly with those they live with.
Amazon Family allows customers to share:
- Fast and free delivery on Prime eligible items
- Access to exclusive Prime events and deals
- Prime Video (with ads)
- Prime Reading
- Access to third-party benefits (for example, Grubhub)
- Digital content such as audio books, eBooks, games, and more.
- Additionally, Prime members can share their Amazon Music Prime benefit with one other adult in their Amazon Family. This sharing allows both adults to enjoy ad-free listening on shuffle mode.
Source: Amazon
CUSTOMER REACTIONS
On social media, several customers have expressed their annoyance at the announcement.
One person on Reddit slammed the e-commerce company for taking away the sharing perk.
They wrote: “This was the main reason I retained my Prime subscription.”
While another claimed that this was their last straw with the comapny.
The customer said: “Great, now I have no reason to keep prime and can finally cancel it.”
Amazon told CNN in a statement that fewer than 1% of US Prime members will be affected by the program ending.
