Amazon is going to have to give you money back, yes. If you are a Prime user and live in the U.S., Amazon has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for 2.5 billion dollars… Of which 1.5 billion will go directly to customers.
It is the largest settlement in the history of the FTC and the second largest refund for consumers in the history of the country, so maybe you are interested.
The investigation concluded that, between 2019 and 2025, Amazon used what the FTC calls “sophisticated subscription traps,” which are basically techniques to hook users into Prime and put all kinds of obstacles when trying to cancel, making it practically impossible to cancel the subscription. The result is that there were more than 35 million affected in just six years!!!
Who can claim
Those who signed up for Prime or tried unsuccessfully to cancel it in the U.S. between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025 will be able to receive money from this settlement.
Automatic refund
Customers who used three or fewer Prime benefits in their first year and who signed up from “questioned” pages (such as Prime Video, Amazon checkout or the shipping page) will receive a direct refund, without needing to fill out any kind of form, the maximum refund will be 51 dollars per person, equivalent to the total fees paid.
The payment process will be like this:
- Initial payments: Amazon will have 90 days to send the first batch of automatic refunds after the FTC order.
- Additional claims: those who are not in the automatic refund group will be able to file a claim on the official website that Amazon will enable. Requests will be accepted by email, mail or online form. There will be 180 days from the receipt of the claim form.
- Final amount: if the fund is not enough to cover all payments, the refund will be distributed proportionally, so many will receive less than the fixed maximum.
What has Amazon said?
The company, through a statement, has defended its practices, assuring that they have always complied with the law (well, now we know that really NOT). And they insisted that the Prime sign-up and cancellation process is “clear and simple” for everyone (not really, John), and that their priority continues to be giving value to the millions of members who pay for the service worldwide.
“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”
The biggest settlement in history
It means economic losses for Amazon and problems for its image, but one must be consistent with the practices carried out. Prime is one of Bezos’s business pillars but now they will have to return to the millions of users who felt betrayed by not being able to cancel the subscription.
For the FTC, this settlement is a historic triumph, thus reinforcing the idea that they guarantee the rights of consumers, more now that digital subscriptions are much more common, and many times, very controversial.
Because no, this is not the first time something like this happens, something similar happened a few months ago with Uber One and it will happen a thousand more times, that is why the work of the FTC is very important, companies must be discouraged from trying to deceive their consumers.
Giants like Amazon are not above the law, even if they have a lot of money. Deceptive subscriptions have to have consequences, and in this case, they do: 2.5 billion dollars fine. Check if your case matches and do not let pass that money that belongs to you!