Amazon has reached a historical settlement of $ 2.5 billion in the Federal Trade Commission, which said that online retail giant forced customers to subscribe to it Basic Membership made it difficult to cancel after that.
The company Seattle will pay for civil fines of $ 1 billion – the largest fine in the history of the agency – and $ 1.5 billion will be returned to consumers who were unintentionally registered in Prime, or were restrained from their subscriptions, the agency said on Thursday.
The settlement of surprise occurred a few days after the start of the trial in the US district court in Seattle this week. This case is based on the law on trust legislation “Buyers Restoration”, the 2010 Law, intended for people to know why they are paid on the Internet.
FTC officials said that Amazon returned to the wall, and the amount of the consumer’s return exceeded even the expert forecasts of the agency.
“I think it took them several days to see that they were going to lose. And they came to us, and they paid, ”said Chris Mufarrig, director of the consumer protection bureau, in the regulation negotiations.
Amazon, however, said that it was confident that he would win the case, but he decided to quickly resolve it, instead of passing the years of trial and appeal. The company did not recognize any mistakes in the case, which was first filed two years ago.
“Amazon and our leaders always followed the law, and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovations for customers,” said representative Mark Blafkin. “We work incredibly diligently to make it clear and easy for customers to subscribe or cancel our main membership and offer significant value for our many millions of members of loyal Prime around the world.”
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Some of the main clients entitled to automatic compensation in the amount of up to $ 51 include those who may have subscribed to membership through a “one -page check” of the company, among other links, from June 23, 2019 to June 23, 2025. These customers will be reimbursed within 90 days from the date of settlement.
Amazon is also on the hook to create a claim process for more than 30 million customers who may have been affected by other problems underlying the FTC case, including the cancellation process.
Amazon Prime provides subscribers with benefits that include faster delivery, streaming video and discounts on Whole Foods for a fee of $ 139 a year or $ 14.99 per month.
This is the key and growing part of the Amazon business with more than 200 million participants. In its latest financial report, the company said in July that it booked more than $ 12 billion by net revenue for subscription services, which is 12% more than last year. This figure includes annual and monthly fees related to primary membership, as well as other subscription services, such as its musical and e -books platforms.
FTC said that Amazon deliberately complicated the purchase of goods without subscribing to Prime. In some cases, the consumers presented a button to complete their transactions – which did not say that she would also register them in Prime, the agency said.
It was often too complicated to get out of the subscription, and Amazon's leadership slowed down or rejected the changes that would facilitate the abolition according to the complaint FTC.
Internally, Amazon called the Iliad process, a reference to the ancient Greek poem about the long siege of Troy during the Trojan War. The process requires the client to confirm three pages their desire to cancel membership.
FTC began to study the practice of Amazon in 2021 during the first administration of Trump, but the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under the leadership of the former FTC chairman of Lina Khan, an antimonopoly expert, which was appointed Biden.
The agency filed a case a few months before it filed an antitrust lawsuit against the retail and technological company, accusing him of monopolistic control over online markets.
Within the framework of Amazon calculation conditions, it is forbidden to distort the subscription conditions. He must fully reveal the costs that will be incurred, and get the apparent consent of the client to a fee. For example, customers should have a clear option to accept or reject the main subscription proposed during the purchase, avoiding a potentially confusing language, such as: “No, thank you, I don’t want free delivery.”
Automatic updates for membership should be clearly indicated, and the company is also required to use the cancellation process, which “should not be difficult, expensive, confusing or laborious”, according to settlement.
Amazon said that settlement does not require it to make any additional changes only in order to maintain his current registration and cancellation process that he has implemented in recent years.
& Copy 2025 Canadian press
