- Amazon said that Echelon’s $500 “Prime Bike” that went on sale Tuesday is “not an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime,” and removed it from sale.
- The bike went on sale exclusively to Amazon Prime members.
- Smart exercise company Echelon previously claimed the bike was developed with Amazon, and that the e-commerce giant initiated the partnership.
- Amazon also removed all references to “Prime” in the product description, but a customer photo shows bold red text on the side of the bike reading “Prime.”
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Amazon has stopped selling Echelon’s new $500 “Prime Bike” only hours after it went on sale exclusively to Amazon Prime subscribers, saying the bike is “not an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime.”
The smart exercise bike was “developed in collaboration with Amazon,” Echelon said in a press release on Monday, adding that Amazon initiated the partnership.
But Amazon told Forbes on Wednesday that Echelon “does not have a formal partnership with Amazon.”
“We are working with Echelon to clarify this in its communications, stop the sale of the product, and change the product branding,” it said.
The $500 bike, previously called the Echelon Ex-Prime Smart Connect Bike, is listed as “currently unavailable” on Amazon, and the product name has been changed from “EX-Prime” to “EX-P.”
The product description also no longer references "Prime" at all, though the product details still use its previous name.
Images of the bike on the Amazon listing only show branding that says "Echelon" and "Connect." But a photo included in a user review shows bold red text on the side of the bike reading "Prime."
Echelon has since removed its press release from PR Newswire, but it can still be accessed via AP News.
Neither Amazon nor Echelon immediately responded to requests for comment.