Amazon members may be entitled to part of historic $2.5B settlement: Here’s how
Good news may be coming for some Amazon members, particularly those who subscribed to Amazon Prime within the last six years.
The retail giant recently reached an agreement to pay out $2.5 billion in a landmark lawsuit after the Federal Trade Commission charged that the company made it overly difficult to unsubscribe from one of the retail-giant's popular programs.
The lawsuit claims Amazon enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and knowingly made it difficult for consumers to cancel.
"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan.
"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.
As a result, the online retail giant is required to pay $1 billion civil penalty as well as an additional $1.5 billion in refunds to customers who were "harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices."
Amazon is also required to discontinue "their deceptive Prime enrollment practices," and "unlawful enrollment and cancellation practices for Prime."
Current and former Amazon Prime members may now be entitled to a part of the settlement.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon's practices violated the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act and is only the third ever ROSCA case that the FTC was able to obtain a civil penalty.
The settlement is the largest civil penalty ever obtained in a case involving an FTC rule violation.
The FTC estimates nearly 35 million customers were impacted by unwanted Prime enrollment or deferred cancellation.
Who qualifies?
To qualify for part of the settlement, you must:
-
Have signed up for a Prime membership in the U.S. between June 23, 2019, and June 25, 2025.
-
Have tried to cancel your subscription within that same time frame but did not follow through.
-
Be a Prime member in the U.S. as the settlement was done through the FTC.
To know when you signed up for Prime, go to "memberships and subscriptions" and click on "payment history."
How to file a claim to get a refund
Some customers will automatically get a $51 payment within the next 90 days, including subscribers who signed up for Prime via the Prime decision page, the shipping option select page, single page checkout or Prime Video enrollment flow.
Customers may also qualify for automatic payment if they haven't used more than three Prime benefits in one fiscal year.
Links to the settlement website are available on Amazon's website and the Amazon Prime page.
More Business News
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
