Amazon To Pay $2.5 BILLION To Settle FTC Lawsuit Over Prime Memberships
Amazon has to cough up $2.5 billion to settle Federal Trade Commission charges alleging the company enrolled millions in Prime without consent, and then made it difficult to cancel. The settlement includes a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in consumer refunds for “deceptive Prime enrollment practices.”
About 35 million customers were affected by unwanted enrollments or difficult cancellation processes. What does that mean for you? Don’t get too excited if you think you could get a piece of that big pie! If you are eligible for compensation, you’ll automatically get up to $51 within 90 days. Amazon must redesign enrollment and cancellation processes, including adding “a clear and conspicuous button for customers to decline Prime.” And the company can no longer use buttons saying “No, I don’t want Free Shipping.”