Amazon settled a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Thursday over allegedly enrolling consumers into its Amazon Prime subscription and making it difficult to cancel. The FTC says the amount of the settlement is one of the biggest in its history.
The FTC’s settlement with Amazon stems from a 2023 complaint claiming the e-commerce giant’s ”deceptive user interface” tricked customers into enrolling in Amazon Prime. Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle with the agency, with $1.5 billion going to customer relief for an estimated 35 million customers impacted and $1 billion set as a civil penalty for the violation.
“The evidence showed that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a press release Thursday.