FTC Seeks Injunction to Bar Amazon's ‘Legally Indefensible’ Prime Enrollment, Cancellation Practices

Amazon for years “has knowingly duped” millions of consumers into “unknowingly enrolling” in Amazon Prime, in violation of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), alleged the FTC in a partially redacted fraud complaint Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-00932) in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle. Amazon used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs” called “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions, it said.

Amazon for years also “knowingly complicated” the Prime cancellation process, said the complaint. Under “significant pressure” from the FTC, and aware that its practices are “legally indefensible,” Amazon “substantially revamped” its Prime cancellation process for at least some subscribers shortly before the complaint was filed, the FTC said. But before that time, “the primary purpose of the Prime cancellation process was not to enable subscribers to cancel, but rather to thwart them,” it said.

The FTC seeks a permanent injunction to prevent Amazon’s future violations of the FTC Act and ROSCA, plus monetary and other relief within the court’s “power to grant,” said the complaint. Amazon didn’t immediately comment.