Amazon has recently faced a significant fine in Poland for its false activities and attempts to promote its business by generating unnecessary designs. The UOKIK, an organization working as a Polish consumer watchdog has investigated the whole incident and found the e-commerce giant as a culprit. While analyzing the customers’ complaints, it is revealed that Amazon has made users think wrongly about the sales contract through its online marketplace. Thus, the company has faced a solid fine.
Fine
The UOKiK has declared Amazon guilty of designing wrong design practices and has fined the e-commerce giant $8 million. When converted to local currency, it is around PLN 31,850,141. This massive fine is evidence of the false activities implemented by Amazon regarding its designs and sales contracts. While they have misled the buyers, the company is now also facing a significant market crisis.
Amazon’s False Activities
Amazon has implemented new design choices that have delivered some sort of false information to the users. They have felt a sense of urgency in the sales procedure. Also, the eCommerce platform has added false information regarding the availability and delivery charges of the products. Moreover, Amazon hasn’t treated the moment of purchase like its traditional sales contract conclusion. Although the company readily sent the notification to the purchasers about the placement of their orders, it canceled the orders later on.
It was one of the biggest mistakes Amazon made because its sales contract was terminated only when the shipment was done. Besides, the eCommerce platform was unable to provide all the essential details to the users. This has caused miscommunication among the buyers. Amazon has implemented the policy of sharing information at the very last stage of their purchase making it increasingly difficult for users to access the information.
Another deceptive design the company has practiced is the use of grey font on a white background to display critical information to the users. Also, it has placed the button at the bottom of the page. Consequently, the users were unable to get the details and faced challenges in their purchase journey.
Misleading Sales Buttons
Generally, Amazon uses buttons such as “Buy Now” to ensure that customers can finalize their purchase procedure by ordering their desired products. Clicking on the button showcases that the customers have concluded their contracts with Amazon. Nevertheless, UOKiK has found that Amazon has made unnecessary changes in these buttons to determine the moments of sales.
Future Impacts
These false activities have impacted Amazon’s reliability to a great extent and have created a sense of disbelief among the customers. While the users who have ordered the products but didn’t receive them have caused frustration and inconvenience among the buyers. The organization has ordered the eCommerce giant that paid money for the product to freeze until the problem is resolved.
