Global Courant
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The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Wednesday Amazonalleging that the country’s dominant online retailer deliberately tricked millions of consumers into signing up for the main Prime program and “sabotaged” their attempts to cancel.
The agency alleges that Amazon violated the FTC law and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act by using so-called dark patterns, or deceptive design tactics intended to guide users toward a specific choice, to induce consumers to act without their permission to sign up for Prime.
“Amazon tricked and tricked people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, which not only frustrated users but also cost them a lot of money,” FTC Chairman Lina Khan said in a statement.
Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon shares fell 1% in early trading.
The FTC has been investigating signup and cancellation processes for Amazon’s Prime program since March 2021. Tensions flared between Amazon and the FTC when the agency wanted CEO Andy Jassy and founder Jeff Bezos to testify about the company’s Prime practices. Amazon argued that the request would be unnecessary and cumbersome, which the FTC rejected.
Launched in 2005, the Prime program has become one of the most popular subscription services in the world, with over 200 million members worldwide, and has generated billions of dollars for Amazon. Membership costs $139 per year and includes benefits such as free shipping and access to streaming content.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accuses Amazon leadership of delaying or rejecting changes that would have made it easier for users to cancel Prime because those changes “negatively affected Amazon’s bottom line.” “.
Amazon made it difficult for consumers to purchase items on their site without Prime, and a button instructing users to complete their transaction did not clearly indicate that they also agreed to Prime for a recurring subscription, the complaint states.
The cancellation process is also difficult to navigate and designed to deter consumers from canceling their Prime subscription, the FTC claimed. Amazon used an internal term called “Iliad” to describe the process, referring to Homer’s epic poem about the Trojan War, the agency said, citing a report from Insider.
The complaint marks the third lawsuit filed by the FTC against Amazon in the past month. Amazon in late May agreed to pay the agency more than $30 million to settle cases alleging privacy violations in its Alexa and Ring units. Amazon said it disagreed with the FTC’s claims, but it had settled to move forward with the case.
