AMAZON charges Brits almost twice as much for its Prime service as those in Belgium and Holland.

UK customers have to pay at least £79 a year compared to €49 (£44) in the other two countries.

All get one-day delivery plus Prime Video and unlimited photo storage. In Germany and Austria the price is €69 (£62) but users are promised premium shipping rather than the one-day service.

It comes in the week Amazon was rapped for failures in its “unlimited one-day delivery” service for Prime members.

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that banners on Amazon’s website highlighting next day delivery were misleading after complaints from 280 customers.

It said Amazon must make it clear some Prime-labelled items will not arrive in the given time.

Jasmine Birtles, of website MoneyMagpie, said: “Many people pay for Prime for the fast delivery and don’t care about the perks so they don’t want to pay double the price. And we now know the fast delivery is not all it’s cracked up to be.”

Citizens Advice wants internet retailers to compensate when delivery promises are not met.

Amazon said Prime was “great value . . . in every country where it’s available.” It said UK Prime was costlier as it had more perks.

Amazon sent price comparison websites into panic yesterday over rumours it plans to launch a rival.

The online giant is said to be sounding out top insurance companies to contribute home and motor insurance products.

Its cutting-edge tech and huge customer base could prove a major challenge to existing UK comparison sites MoneySupermarket.com and GoCompare.com.

The prospect spooked investors yesterday with Moneysupermarket’s shares plunging five per cent to 283.70p. GoCompare, famous for its catchy singing tenor advert, pictured, closed flat at 114.00p after early falls.

Analysts said the move would be a logical next step for Amazon, best known in the UK as an online retailer.

An industry insider told The Sun: “If Amazon goes ahead, at the end of the day it will be just another price comparison site.

“If they are offering more choice that is a good thing for customers. What will be interesting to see is if Amazon begins to offer their own insurance products too, and how it compares them to other products.”

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “Expanding into financial services may seem a strange move for a retailer, yet it makes sense when you consider Amazon’s incredible reach and wide range of consumers. Home, travel and car insurance are already highly competitive markets.

“That won’t bother Amazon as its muscle power and wide reach could give it a fighting chance of making a big success from the sale of third party insurance policies.”

Amazon said it would not comment on rumours or speculation.

It currently offers branded credit cards in the UK and Germany.

Tech-rival Google launched a financial services comparison site in Britain in 2016 but shut it down after only a year due to low traffic.