Amazon Tightens Prime Delivery Standards in EU
Amazon is rolling out new rules for Prime eligibility and badging across its EU marketplaces, effective September 15, 2025.
While logistics remain Amazon’s responsibility for FBA sellers, the changes still determine which offers keep their Prime visibility and which quietly lose it.
What’s Changing?
In Germany, Amazon's delivery speed targets for standard-size and low-price domestic offers are being tightened. Currently, 5% of deliveries must promise 1-day shipping, 35% within 2 days, and 70% within 4 days. From mid-September, those thresholds move to 10%, 45%, and 80% respectively.
For France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden, the update is focused on the Prime badge itself. Today, the badge appears if an item sits within the fastest 85% of offers, with guardrails ensuring that anything 3 days or faster automatically qualifies. From September 15, the rules become stricter:
- France: Badge requires a 3-day promise or faster.
- Netherlands & Belgium: Badge goes to the fastest 85% but only if 4 days or faster; guaranteed at 2 days.
- Sweden: Badge goes to the fastest 85% but only if 7 days or faster; guaranteed at 3 days.
Why This Matters
It’s worth separating two levers here: Prime eligibility decides if an offer can be part of Prime at all, while Prime badging controls whether the familiar blue checkmark actually shows up for customers. Losing the badge doesn’t kick you out of Prime, but it can hit visibility just as hard.
The Prime badge is a major trust signal. Customers scan for it instinctively, and its absence can pull conversion rates down, even if the product is technically still Prime-eligible. That is what makes this shift relevant: products could lose the badge not because of weak operations, but because Amazon’s own fulfillment network cannot meet new speed thresholds in a given market.
Front Row’s Take
Amazon is tightening the definition of “fast” across Europe, and the badge is once again the deciding factor. The takeaway for brands is not to chase delivery promises, since Amazon owns that for FBA, but to monitor visibility shifts closely and adapt strategy when badges drop.
At Front Row, we track these shifts in real time and build plans to protect Prime visibility, ensuring that when badges disappear, performance does not.
