Amazon used to make it easy to sign up for a Prime subscription — but very difficult to cancel. From tricky shipping options to Prime Video, plenty of customers wound up with a subscription they didn’t want, and now Amazon is paying the price. In September, the US Federal Trade Commission dropped a massive $2.5 billion settlement on the company for its deceptive subscription tactics.
This isn’t just a slap on the wrist. A whopping $1.5 billion is earmarked to refund eligible subscribers, with the rest serving as a civil penalty. Amazon is now legally required to provide a clear, obvious option to decline Prime, making it as easy to leave the service as it is to join.
Amazon isn’t admitting to any shady behavior. “Amazon and our executives have always followed the law, and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” Mark Blafkin, Amazon senior manager, said in a statement. “We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world.”
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Why did the FTC file a lawsuit against Amazon?
The FTC filed suit against Amazon, accusing the company of using “dark patterns” to nudge people into Prime subscriptions and then making it too hard to cancel. The FTC maintained Amazon was in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.
“Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions,” the FTC complaint stated.
Who’s eligible for Amazon’s payout?
Amazon’s legal settlement is limited to customers who enrolled in Amazon Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025. It’s also restricted to customers who subscribed to Prime using a “challenged enrollment flow” or who enrolled in Prime through any method but were unsuccessful in canceling their memberships.
The FTC called out specific enrollment pages, including Prime Video enrollment, the Universal Prime Decision page, the Shipping Option Select page and the Single Page Checkout. To qualify for a payout, claimants must also not have used more than 10 Amazon Prime benefits in any 12-month period.
Customers who signed up via those challenged processes and did not use more than three Prime benefits within one year will be paid automatically by Amazon within 90 days. Other eligible Amazon customers will need to file a claim, after Dec. 23, and Amazon is required to send notices to those people within 30 days of making its automatic payments.
Customers who did not use a challenged sign-up process but instead were unable to cancel their memberships will also need to file claims for payment.
How big will the Amazon payments be?
Payouts to eligible Amazon claimants will be limited to a maximum of $51. That amount could be reduced depending on the number of Amazon Prime benefits you used while subscribed to the service. Those benefits include free two-day shipping, watching shows or movies on Prime Video or Whole Foods grocery discounts.
Customers who qualify for the payments should receive them by Dec. 24. Customers outside the US aren’t eligible for the payout.
