Amazon agrees to make canceling Prime easy, will refund customers $1.5B
Amazon has agreed to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing the e-commerce giants of tricking customers into signing up for Prime and then making it frustratingly hard to cancel.
In a press release Thursday, the FTC confirmed that, pending court approval, Amazon will pay a $1 billion civil penalty and provide $1.5 billion in refunds to an estimated 35 million customers "harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices." Former FTC chair Lina Khan initiated the lawsuit, accusing customers of trapping customers in a labyrinthine" Prime cancellation process the company named after Homer's Iliad.
The civil penalty, the FTC noted, is "the largest ever in a case involving an FTC rule violation," and the refunds to customers are "the second-highest restitution award ever obtained by FTC action."