Lina M. Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said that Amazon has been tricking customers into paying for subscriptions. The FTC announced that a federal lawsuit has been filed against Amazon.
According to the press release, millions of consumers have been intentionally deceived by Amazon, without their knowledge, into unwittingly renewing Amazon Prime subscriptions using deceptive user-interface designs referred to as "dark patterns." The FTC filed the lawsuit against Amazon on June 21 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the release said.
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” Khan said in the press release. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike. The FTC will continue to vigorously protect Americans from 'dark patterns' and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets.”
The FTC contends that Amazon deliberately made the cancellation process for Prime subscribers more challenging, the press release said. Instead of facilitating cancellations, the primary objective of Amazon's Prime cancellation process was to hinder them. The leadership at Amazon deliberately impeded or dismissed modifications that could have simplified the cancellation procedure, as such changes would have had negative financial implications for the company, the FTC said.
The lawsuit follows an investigation of Amazon Prime that lasted several months, a CNN article said. This behavior directly affects a crucial facet of Amazon's operations, CNN said. The company achieved a milestone in 2021 by surpassing 200 million paid Prime subscribers. Through Prime, Amazon has the capacity to generate billions of dollars from subscriptions while also encouraging customers to devote more of their time and money to its various sites.
CNN reports that Amazon released a statement saying that the FTC’s accusations were “false on the facts and the law.” Amazon said, “We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the Commissioners themselves before they filed a lawsuit. While the absence of that normal course engagement is extremely disappointing, we look forward to proving our case in court.”
The press release said that FTC commissioners voted 3-0 to authorize the staff to proceed with the lawsuit. In a note at the bottom of the release, the FTC said it would not file a complaint unless it had “reason to believe” laws were being violated or were about to be violated.
