What happened
Amazon has settled a lawsuit over allegations it tricked customers into signing up for Prime membership and made it too onerous to end their subscriptions, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday. Amazon agreed to pay a $1 billion civil penalty and up to $1.5 billion in refunds to an estimated 35 million affected customers.
Who said what
Amazon relied on “sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime,” then “made it exceedingly hard” to cancel, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said. An Amazon spokesperson said the e-commerce giant had “always followed the law” and could now “move forward and focus on innovating for customers.” The company did not admit or deny wrongdoing in the settlement.
The “historic” settlement, one of the largest in U.S. history, was a “surprise,” coming days after the case went to trial in federal court in Seattle, The Associated Press said. The fine “rivals some of the large penalties” levied by the European Union’s aggressive privacy and competition regulators, The Washington Post said, but it’s also just a “fraction” of Amazon’s “nearly $60 billion” in profits last year. This is a “drop in the bucket for Amazon,” former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who filed the case in 2023, said on social media. “And, no doubt, a big relief for the executives who knowingly harmed their customers.”
What next?
Amazon has 90 days to automatically refund $51 to customers who signed up between June 2019 and June 2025 through a deceptive sign-up process, then barely used the service or watched Prime Video. Other customers who could qualify will be contacted with directions to apply for refunds.
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