Amazon settles the trial on the main subscriptions: NPR

Amazon has agreed to pay $ 2.5 billion historic to settle a historic case on its main membership program. The US government had alleged that the company’s web conceptions manipulated tens of millions of people to pay subscriptions that were deliberately difficult to cancel.

Amazon, without admitting reprehensible acts, will pay $ 1 billion in civilian public penalties and $ 1.5 billion in additional payments to assigned consumers, according to court documents. The company, in its press release, said that it and its leaders “have always followed the law and these regulations allow us to move forward and focus on innovation for customers”.

Millions of people who have paid Amazon bonus between mid-2019 and mid-2012 should automatically receive reimbursements of up to $ 51, while other Amazon users will be able to submit complaints for reimbursement. Their eligibility will depend on the number of privileged advantages that these buyers have used in addition to free delivery. Amazon will explain the question on its website and will make other modifications to the way in which the privileged subscription options are displayed to buyers.

The FTC, which regulates competition, brought an implementation of the trial in 2023 on bonus, which helped Amazon last year to take more than $ 44 billion in subscription income. People who pay for bonus are known to buy more frequently and spend more; Amazon revealed its number of main subscribers to more than 200 million people in 2021 for the last time.

The federal trial has accused Amazon of illegally using “manipulative, coercive or deceptive” conceptions to “deceive” buyers to register for automatically privileged subscriptions, which currently cost $ 139 per year or $ 14.99 per month. The regulators also allegedly alleged that Amazon had deliberately constructed a complex cancellation process and in several stages to discourage people from quitting smoking – and restoring on the plans several times to simplify the process because it has led to less subscribers.

The case was tried this week, in the hometown of Amazon, Seattle. A little unusual for a dense antitrust case, a jury was planned to determine if Amazon has broken the law.

Throughout the Battle of the Tribunal, Amazon denied having violated the laws. He argued that his registration and cancellation processes were simple and clear for the vast majority of main users, and that his conceptions and disclosure followed or even exceeded the standards of the widely used industry.

The settlement agreement comes on testimony by a key witness to the FTC: the former researcher of the user experience of Amazon, Reid Nelson.

Nelson’s emails and SMS revealed that he and his team had repeatedly pointed out Amazon’s design tactics as deceptive or confusing for customers. In a message, Nelson said that Amazon’s commercial objectives would be very difficult to achieve if the Web Prime design was more transparent. During the counter-examination, Amazon lawyers said that the company had spent more than $ 10 million to solve customer frustration problems such as those reported by Nelson and his team.

Amazon still faces another more important federal trial, in which the FTC accused the company of operating as a monopoly. The technology giant described him as “false on the facts and on the law”. This trial was scheduled for the beginning of 2027, before the same judge, John Chun of the American district court for the western district of Washington.

Publisher’s note: Amazon is one of the recent financial supporters of NPR and pays to distribute NPR content.