US: Amazon to pay $2.5 billion for misleading Prime subscriptions

Seattle (United States), 25 September (LaPresse/AP) – Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which had accused the e-commerce giant of misleading customers into signing up for Prime and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions. According to the FTC, $1 billion will go towards civil penalties, the highest in the agency’s history, while $1.5 billion will be paid to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime or discouraged from cancelling their subscriptions. The settlement covers those who signed up using the “Single Page Checkout” feature between 23 June 2019 and 23 June 2025. The FTC sued Amazon two years ago in Seattle District Court, accusing the group of legal violations that lasted for over a decade, including violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act of 2010, a law designed to ensure transparency on online costs. Amazon did not admit any liability in the settlement. Amazon Prime offers benefits such as faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods, with an annual subscription of £139 or a monthly subscription of £14.99. The service has over 200 million subscribers and, according to the latest financial statements, generated over £12 billion in net subscription revenue, up 12% from the previous year. The FTC pointed out that Amazon made it difficult to complete purchases without subscribing to Prime, presenting unclear buttons and complicating the cancellation process, internally called “Iliad”, in which the customer had to confirm on three pages their desire to cancel the subscription. The FTC’s investigation into Prime’s practices began in 2021, while the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under the leadership of then-chair Lina Khan.