FTC, Amazon Face Off in Court Over Prime Sign-Up and Cancellation Practices

The lawsuit claims Amazon enrolled millions in Prime without consent and made it nearly impossible for them to cancel subscriptions.

An Amazon Prime delivery person lifts packages while making a stop in Denver. Co. AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File

Global e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began arguments this week in a lawsuit originally filed in 2023 in the Western District of Washington.

The litigation claims Amazon deceived millions of consumers by enrolling them in Amazon Prime without their consent and also made it nearly impossible for them to cancel their subscriptions.

Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service that offers members a wide range of benefits, including free product delivery, discounts, games, e-books, and streaming services for music and movies. Subscription costs are $14.99 a month or $139 a year—a discounted rate. Young adults can take advantage of lower subscription costs.

In the lawsuit, the FTC claimed that Amazon used deceptive user-interface designs known as “dark patterns” to trick consumers into automatically enrolling and renewing Prime subscriptions.

In addition, the FTC claimed that the company’s Prime cancellation process was extremely difficult, and that Amazon knowingly slowed or rejected changes that would have made it easier for users to cancel Prime.

“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a 2023 statement. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike.”

According to the FTC, consumers faced several options during the checkout process to subscribe to Amazon Prime. In many cases, however, the options to purchase Amazon items without subscribing to Prime were more difficult for consumers to locate, the FTC alleges.

In some cases, the lawsuit contends, the button presented to consumers to complete their transaction did not clearly state that by choosing that option, they were also agreeing to join Prime for a recurring subscription.

“Consumers who attempted to cancel Prime were faced with multiple steps to actually accomplish the task of cancelling,” the FTC complaint stated.

“Consumers had to first locate the cancellation flow, and once there, they were redirected to multiple pages that presented several offers to continue the subscription at a discounted price, to simply turn off the auto-renew feature, or to decide not to cancel. Only after clicking through these pages could consumers finally cancel the service.”

The complaint also alleges that Amazon was aware that consumers were being enrolled without their consent and that company executives failed to alleviate the complicated tech issues until the FTC began its investigation. In addition, the FTC claims that Amazon tried to procrastinate in cooperating with its probe.

An Amazon spokesperson told the Epoch Times, “The bottom line is that neither Amazon nor the individual defendants did anything wrong—we remain confident that the facts will show these executives acted properly and we always put the customer first.”

Banklinko reports that Amazon has more than 200 million Prime members in 25 countries, and the company earned $21.59 billion in revenue from subscription fees in 2024. Sales during Amazon Prime Day topped $14.2 billion last year.