FTC: Amazon Tricked Millions Into Signing Up For Prime Subscriptions
Amazon has “knowingly duped” millions of US consumers into signing up for a Prime subscription, the Federal Trade Commission claims in a lawsuit against the company.
On Wednesday, FTC announced its suing the e-commerce giant for allegedly resorting to shady website design practices, including making it hard for consumers to cancel their Prime subscriptions.
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in the announcement(Opens in a new window).
The US regulator alleges Amazon used deceptive design tricks with the company’s website, also known as “dark patterns,” to manipulate users into signing up for a subscription. For example, forcing users to see a prominent button to subscribe to Prime during the shopping process, while labeling the button with the words “free shipping” or “free trial.”
The same dark patterns could also force consumers to go through a “complex and confusing process” that required multiple steps when cancelling a Prime subscription.
The FTC’s complaint(Opens in a new window) to the US district court is heavily redacted. But it looks like the US regulator has uncovered evidence Amazon’s leadership was aware of the tactics.
“Some Amazon employees pushed the company executives responsible for Prime—including Neil Lindsay (“Lindsay”), Russell Grandinetti (“Grandinetti”) and Jamil Ghani (“Ghani”)—to address Nonconsensual Enrollment and make changes so that Amazon would not be tricking its customers,” the complaint claims.
Although Amazon’s own employees tried to address the problem, the document alleges company executives “slowed, avoided, and even undid user
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