Amazon Dev Pay...at least one reason to be concerned

Ed Sullivan February 14, 2008

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Amazon Dev Pay recently.  On the surface, it seems like a great idea and a cost effective way to start a web-based service.  After digging a little deeper, I found several red flags and one BIG game stopper if you plan on growing your business.

Read the entire Processing Agreement.  And pay special attention to paragraph 8.2 which I abridge below:

 

8.2 Purchase Data.  In order to allow you to manage Subscriptions, we may provide to you certain information pertaining to End Users, including, the name, e-mail address and any other information that we make available to you ("Purchaser Data").  We own all Purchaser Data that we provide to you and you have limited rights to disclose and use Purchaser Data. 

So…you don’t own the customer, Amazon owns them.

The following was an additional scary bit of fine print in the same paragraph:

Specifically, you will not directly or indirectly:use any Purchaser Data for any purpose, other than as is necessary to manage Subscriptions you sell through the Service, including, without limitation, marketing or promotional purposes

I’m not an attorney, but it seems clear, if you send an email offering additional services to your customers Amazon can terminate the agreement and keep the money in your account:

7.2 Suspension or Termination by Us.  We may suspend or terminate the Service, for any reason at any time without prior notice to you.  Termination of the Service will result in the closure of your Payment Account and termination of this Agreement.  Without limiting the foregoing, we may suspend the Service and access to your Payment Account (including without limitation the funds in your Payment Account)

Seems fair to me!!