Seattle-based tech giant Amazon has discontinued its month-long Prime membership in India following a new RBI guideline that asks banks and financial institutions to implement an additional factor of authentication for processing online transactions. Going ahead, Amazon will only offer three-month and annual prime memberships. The Amazon Prime monthly subscription was priced at Rs 129 per month, but it has now been removed to adhere to the new RBI guidelines The deadline for implementation of the new mandate has been set for September 30. Amazon has also updated its support page to reflect the removal of its monthly subscription.
Apart from this, Amazon has also discontinued its free trial for new Prime members as well. This change, according to a report in NDTV Gadgets 360, kicked in on April 27 and is said to be a temporary measure. Currently, new subscribers can only opt for the three-month or annual subscription for Amazon Prime. The three-month subscription costs Rs 329, while the annual Amazon Prime subscription costs Rs 999.
The new RBI framework was initially announced back in August 2019 and an extended deadline for banks and financial institutions was set for September 30 this year. Initially, RBI issued the framework to deploy additional factors of authorization for recurring transactions worth up to Rs 2,000 in 2019. It was however extended in December last year to transactions of up to a limit of Rs 5,000. Recurring transactions above Rs 5,000 will require an additional OTP.