Amazon agrees to pay $ 2.5 billion on the complaints he deceived customers

Amazon has agreed to pay $ 2.5 billion (1.9 billion pounds sterling) to resolve complaints filed by the US government that it has made millions of people to register as first -rate members and made cancellation difficult.

A total of $ 1.5 billion will go to reimbursements for customers who have been due to register for the service, according to the proposed regulations announced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The agreement only occurred a few days after the start of the trial before a jury in Seattle. It marks a major victory for the FTC, producing the largest civil penalty of all time guaranteed by the agency.

Amazon, who has not admitted or refused allegations, said that she had “always followed the law” and that the regulations would allow the cabinet to “go forward”.

Prime offers free delivery, access to streaming movies and more. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide subscribe to the service, which costs $ 139 per year in the United States, or $ 14.99 per month and £ 95 per year in the United Kingdom.

The FTC had targeted Amazon’s practices, such as the contextual windows during the departure which repeatedly suggested customers register for premium, the collection of billing information without fully disclosing conditions or indicating how to refuse the service.

They also targeted the offer of the privileged test company of a month, which did not clearly indicate that customers would be automatically registered at the end of the month.

The agency said these conceptions had violated consumer protection laws.

“The evidence has shown that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers to register for premium, then made extremely difficult for consumers to end their subscription,” said FTC president Andrew Ferguson.

“Today, we put billions of dollars in the Pockets of Americans and we make sure that Amazon never starts again.”

According to the FTC, it is estimated that 35 million people in the United States which have been affected by such practices between June 2019 and June 2025 could be eligible for reimbursements, of a value of up to $ 51.

Amazon has agreed to automatically reimburse customers who have used privileged advantages less than three times more than a year after registration. Those who have used it less than 10 times during one year are eligible but must submit a complaint.

As part of the regulations, Amazon will no longer be able to include buttons saying “No, I don’t want free delivery” and must create an easy way to cancel Prime.

The FTC said that Amazon knew that its practices could be questioned, pointing internal documents in which managers and employees have made comments like “subscription driving is a bit of a shaded world”.

After the announcement of the regulations, Amazon spokesperson Mark Blafkin said that the company had worked “incredibly hard to indicate clearly and simple for customers to register or cancel their main membership”.

“Amazon and our leaders have always followed the law and these regulations allow us to move forward and focus on innovation for customers,” he said.

Amazon had already made some modifications to its practices while trying to postpone the trial, which the FTC filed in 2023 under former president Joe Biden.

At the time, the agency was led by Lina Khan, which made its name calling for a more difficult anti-monopoly examination of companies such as Amazon.

Ferguson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the agency earlier this year, also took a hard line on technological companies.

But some criticized the FTC after the announcement of the regulation, saying that if it was seriously a question of repressing unfair subscription practices, he would have continued to put pressure for a new rule requiring easy cancellation.

The rule was implemented under the Biden administration, then canceled by a court of appeal earlier this year.

“Enough with this Whack-A-Mole game,” said Nidhi Hegde, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, a group that called for a more difficult examination of large companies.

“If the Commission wishes to seriously protect people from deceived subscription patterns, it should reissue the click-channel rule today.”