Automatic Payments Policy
This policy applies to Sellers using our Automatic Payments service.
What is Automatic Payments?
Automatic Payments is a service offered by Amazon Payments. It allows a buyer to authorise an Amazon Payments Seller Account holder to automatically charge a payment method stored in that buyer’s Amazon Payments Account. Note that this service is only available for the Advanced Payments APIs integration of Pay with Amazon. Some examples include:
- A recurring payment for a subscription for a fixed amount (for example a monthly magazine subscription)
- A recurring payment of a usage based bill for variable amounts (for example, electricity bill)
- Payments for purchases a buyer may make in the future (for example, purchases of mp3 songs or games)
What is a Recurring Payment?
A Recurring Payment is a payment that occurs at regular or predetermined intervals over a specified time period. It is one type of Automatic Payments.
What are other types of Automatic Payments?
The other types of Automatic Payments are payments for purchases a buyer may make in the future, the frequency and the amounts of such purchases are not predetermined but the aggregate amount of purchases will not exceed the total monthly amount limit for each authorisation the buyer gives you.
What responsibilities does a Seller have when it charges a buyer for Automatic Payment?
Before a buyer agrees to Automatic Payment arrangement, you must inform the buyer of the amount of each recurring transaction, if known, the frequency of the charge and the duration of the arrangement. You must provide this information in an email you provide to the buyer after they authorise Automatic Payment arrangement. You must keep the buyer’s authorisation for Automatic Payment transactions for the duration of such buyer’s authorisation and provide to Amazon Payments a copy of such authorisation promptly upon request. You will publish on your site and provide buyers the information about the cancelation procedure for the given authorisation and will act promptly on buyers request to cancel their authorisation. You will not charge buyers for the cancelation. Upon receipt of the cancelation notice from the buyer, you must cancel the buyer’s authorisation by logging into your Seller Account.
You will comply with all applicable rules and regulations of the card associations, networks, or companies which may apply to Automatic Payments including providing the buyer with the cancelation options.
When can a Seller use Automatic Payments?
If you wish to use Automatic Payments to automatically charge a buyer’s selected payment method for a future purchase without the buyer signing into their Amazon Payments Account, you must obtain prior approval from Account Management prior to implementing Automatic Payments for these types of transactions. For example, without prior approval, you must present the “Pay with Amazon”, “Login with Amazon” or other Amazon Payments button as appropriate to allow an Amazon Payments Account holder to authenticate themselves to Amazon Payments each time a buyer is making a purchase on your site.
You may not use Automatic Payments for instalment payments. Amazon Payments Europe User Agreement- Seller Account and Amazon Payments standard rates apply to the Automatic Payments service.
Are there any limits on the amount I can charge the buyer?
Amazon Payments limits the total amount of Automatic Payments, including the recurring payments, to £500 in a calendar month for a given buyer’s authorisation. If your business requires a higher limit, contact Account Management.