Lawsuit Accuses Amazon Of Decieving Customers Into Buying Prime

The Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon for allegedly enrolling customers into Prime without their consent and making it difficult to unsubscribe.

According to the Associated Press, the FTC filed a complaint with the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. The agency accused Amazon of deceiving customers into signing up for Prime. The complaint claimed that the company made it difficult to buy items without subscribing to Prime. Allegedly, customers were sometimes presented with buttons to close transactions that did not clearly state they would also be enrolled in Prime.

The FTC has said that the public version of the complaint has been significantly redacted, however it also claimed that the agency has "a number of allegations" which confirm the legitimacy of the lawsuit. FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a prepared statement, "Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money. These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike."

Amazon did not respond to the AP's request for comment. However, the tech lobbying group NetChoice, which represents Amazon, released a statement of their own. Carl Szabo, NetChoice's vice president and general counsel, said, "The complaint is that Amazon encourages people to use Amazon Prime--this is like going after Kroger for promoting its rewards program or Costco for its membership club. It is abundantly clear that the FTC is a runaway agency in need of greater oversight. Congress must engage in robust oversight to rein in the FTC by cutting funding and investigating its ethical lapses and abuse of power."

In other FTC news, the agency won a lawsuit against Amazon for privacy violations related to its Alexa voice assistant and the Ring camera. The agency also ordered Epic Games to pay $245 million in refunds to customers after it was accused of using "dark patterns" to trick players into making purchases.