Amazon launches limited-time free service again! Official intervention disrupts the EU agency industry

Recently, Amazon released a new announcement, saying that it has launched a new Amazon Responsible Person (ARP) service in Europe, providing free European Responsible Person agency services to all sellers in Europe, which is what we commonly call European agents.

After providing VAT calculation services and tax number registration and declaration services in Europe, Amazon has also extended its hand to the European agent business. This time, unlike the tax number service, Amazon does not recommend officially certified third-party service providers to sellers, but directly comes forward to act as the European person in charge for sellers in the name of Amazon. After understanding what the European agent is, everyone should know how important this service of Amazon is.

In the relevant regulations issued by the European Union in 2019, it is required that all manufacturers outside the EU must set up a product compliance contact point in the EU, also known as the "responsible person", when selling products with the CE mark in the EU. This responsible person is not set up for nothing. If there are quality problems or compliance violations with the product, if the seller cannot be contacted, you have to trouble this responsible person. It is really strange that Amazon is willing to take on this trouble itself. Previously, because Amazon did not want to take responsibility, it forced sellers to buy commercial insurance for the products out of their own pockets, and they had to add Amazon to the insured. If something went wrong, Amazon would directly blame the insurance company for compensation. Why is Amazon willing to come forward as the responsible person when it comes to the European representative who also needs to take responsibility?

After reading the announcement carefully, I found out that the ARP service is only "free for a limited time". Starting from November, you will need to pay a monthly fee of 25 Euros to use ARP.

The annual fee is 300 euros, which is a little over 2,000 yuan. The average price of European agents on the market is around 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, and Amazon's price is quite competitive in the market. This is even more strange, because the price of Amazon's own services has always been ridiculously expensive. When the official payment collection was first released in 2019, the third-party payment collection rates of the same period had already reached thousands or even 0 rates, while Amazon's official payment collection rate was actually 1.2%. How come Amazon gave a cheaper price than the industry when it came to European agents?

Previously, Amazon had no shortage of revenue. In 2020, the epidemic dividend was fully utilized and the company took off. The miscellaneous services such as payment and photo taking that were operated by the company were all for the purpose of occupying the market. They just set high prices to ensure profits, and did not seek to make money from these services. But now the situation is different. Amazon’s financial report is very ugly, and it is in urgent need of finding other growth points to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. The ARP service was priced under this circumstance, and it is obvious that it is a project that really intends to make money.