WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday filed a complaint against Amazon.com, accusing the platform of coercing millions of consumers into subscribing to the paid Amazon Prime service without their consent. consent and making it difficult to unsubscribe.
The FTC, which accuses “Amazon of having knowingly tricked millions of consumers into registering without their knowledge for the Amazon Prime service”, said it had filed a complaint in Seattle District Court.
The Commission seeks in its complaint a civil penalty, without specifying an amount, against Amazon and an injunction to prevent future violations.
Amazon used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user interface designs, known as ‘dark patterns’, to trick consumers into signing up for auto-renewing Prime subscriptions,” added the FTC.
Amazon Prime provides subscribers with fast and free delivery of millions of items, various discounts, and access to movies, music, and TV series, along with other benefits.
In the United States, Prime members typically pay $139 a year and are responsible for much of Amazon’s sales volume. Prime has over 200 million members worldwide.
The FTC has been investigating Prime program opt-in and unsubscribe procedures since March 2021.
“Amazon tricked people into buying recurring subscriptions without their consent, which not only frustrated users but also cost them a lot of money,” said Lina Khan, chair of the FTC.
Consumers who attempted to unsubscribe from the Prime program faced many steps to do so, the complaint says.
(Report David Shepardson; Kate Entringer)
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