Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion to Settle Lawsuit Over Prime Subscription Practices
Amazon has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company tricked users into signing up for its Amazon Prime subscription service and sabotaged their efforts to cancel the subscription. This announcement comes just days into the company’s court case with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC announced the settlement in a press release today, stating that Amazon enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and knowingly made it difficult for them to cancel. As part of the settlement, Amazon will pay a $1 billion civil penalty and refund $1.5 billion to affected customers. Notably, Amazon admitted to no wrongdoing as part of the agreement.
“Today, the Trump-Vance FTC made history and secured a record-breaking, monumental win for the millions of Americans who are tired of deceptive subscriptions that feel impossible to cancel,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson.
He added, “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. Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again. The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to fighting back when companies try to cheat ordinary Americans out of their hard-earned pay.”
This settlement marks a significant development in consumer protection efforts against deceptive subscription practices by major corporations.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146113/amazon-2-5-billion-settlement-prime-subscriptions-ftc