Amazon to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC Prime trial

Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to end a federal trial over claims that it tricked millions into paying for Prime and made canceling it intentionally hard.

The Federal Trade Commission made the announcement Thursday, according to information from the agency. The settlement shuts down a jury trial that had barely started in Seattle, just three days in, and stops the risk of Amazon being hit with even bigger penalties if the jury had ruled against them.

The agency had accused Amazon of using design tricks to get people to sign up for Prime without full consent, and also claimed the company deliberately set up confusing cancellation processes.

About 35 million customers were affected, according to the complaint. The trial also placed three of Amazon’s top executives—Jamil Ghani, Neil Lindsay, and one other—at risk of being held personally responsible if the court sided with the FTC.

Amazon agrees to pay but denies wrongdoing

As part of the agreement, Amazon will send $1 billion to the FTC as a civil penalty and $1.5 billion to users who either didn’t mean to sign up or couldn’t figure out how to cancel.

The company will pay out $51 to each eligible user and must do that within 90 days. These payments are tied to what the FTC called “unwanted Prime enrollment or deferred cancellation.”

Amazon, however, isn’t admitting to anything. In a statement, company spokesperson Mark Blafkin said, “We have always followed the law, and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers.” That’s all Amazon had to say about it. But the agreement still forces them to clean up how they sell Prime.

From now on, Amazon has to clearly tell people the terms of Prime before charging them. The company also has to get permission before charging anyone’s card. And canceling Prime must be easy; no more hidden buttons or endless clicking around.

The FTC added that both Jamil and Neil, two high-level executives tied to Prime, are now banned from any behavior the agency sees as illegal under this agreement.

Trump’s FTC sees the penalty as a major win

Andrew Ferguson, who now leads the FTC under President Donald Trump, described the outcome as a massive victory. “The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to fighting back when companies try to cheat ordinary Americans out of their hard-earned pay,” Ferguson said in a statement.

This case now ranks as one of the largest penalties ever handed down by the agency. Only Meta, when it was still called Facebook, was hit with a bigger fine; $5 billion in 2019, over user privacy violations. Still, in Amazon’s world, $2.5 billion is pocket change.

The company is currently worth $2.4 trillion, which makes the fine less than 0.1% of its total value. Despite the news, Amazon shares actually rose slightly after the settlement was revealed.

Prime started in 2005 and now has more than 200 million members worldwide. The subscription costs $139 a year and includes fast shipping, streaming content, and other perks. Prime users spend more and shop more often than regular users, helping Amazon bring in billions every year.

But this isn’t the end of Amazon’s fights with the FTC. Another case is still on the table. In 2023, the agency teamed up with attorneys general from 17 states to accuse Amazon of using its market power to force out competitors, inflate prices, and make the shopping experience worse. The lawsuit calls Amazon a monopoly that used its position to hurt both consumers and rivals.

Amazon got some parts of that lawsuit dismissed in 2024, but the case is still scheduled to go to trial in 2027. The outcome of that case could bring even bigger problems if Amazon loses again.

The government is not just watching Amazon. This month, a judge threw out some of the harshest requests from the Department of Justice in their antitrust case against Google. The government wanted Google to sell off Chrome, but the judge said no. While Google did lose the case last year, it walked away without having to give up any of its major products.

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