Oct. 1, 2025:
You might have heard that, last week, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that it enrolled millions of people in Prime subscriptions without their consent – and then made it hard for those unwilling Prime subscribers to cancel. Since $1.5 billion of that amount goes back to consumers, you might be wondering: who gets it? How? And what do I need to do?
Last question, first: right now, do nothing. The refunds are automatic and will go out by December 25, 2025.
Now for the answers to those other questions. If you meet all three of these requirements, you may be eligible for an automatic refund of your Prime membership fees, up to $51:
- You’re a US-based Amazon Prime customer.
- You signed up for a Prime membership between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025 through one of the enrollment flows the FTC challenged in its case OR you unsuccessfully tried to cancel your Amazon Prime membership between those same dates.
- You used less than three Prime benefits, such as watching a Prime video or listening to Amazon Music, in any 12-month period after you enrolled in Prime.
One more important thing. Scammers often use the names of well-known companies and big FTC settlements to contact people to “help” with your account or refund. How do you know it’s a scam? Because the FTC will never contact you about this refund. And no one from the FTC or Amazon will ask you for money to get a refund. And only scammers say they can get you special access or a guaranteed refund.
If you get an unexpected call, text, or email from someone who claims to be the FTC or Amazon, it’s probably a scam. Tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. And learn more about these refunds at ftc.gov/Amazon.
Sept. 25, 2025:
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said the online retail giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships and made it difficult for them to cancel after doing so.
The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest such fine in the agency’s history for a rule violation — and $1.5 billion will be paid back to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions, the agency said Thursday (Sept. 25, 2025).
The surprise settlement comes just days after the trial began in U.S. District Court in Seattle this week. At the heart of the case is the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to ensure that people know what they’re being charged for online.
FTC officials said Amazon had its back against the wall and the consumer refund amount exceeded even the agency’s expert projections.
“I think it just took a few days for them to see that they were going to lose. And they came to us and they paid out,” said Chris Mufarrige, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, on the settlement negotiations.
Amazon, however, said it was confident it would win case but that it chose to resolve it quickly instead of going through potentially years of trial and appeals. The company admitted no wrongdoing in the case, which was first filed two years ago.
“Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” said spokesman Mark Blafkin in a statement. “We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world.”
Certain Prime customers who are eligible for automatic refunds of up to $51 include those who may have signed up for a membership via the company’s “Single Page Checkout,” among other links, between June 23, 2019, to June 23, 2025. Those customers will be reimbursed within 90 days of the settlement order.
Amazon is also on the hook to set up a claims process for more than 30 million customers who may have been affected by the other issues at the heart of the FTC case, including its cancellation process.
Amazon Prime provides subscribers with perks that include faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods for a fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month.
It’s a key and growing part of Amazon’s business, with more than 200 million members. In its latest financial report, the company reported in July that it booked more than $12 billion in net revenue for subscription services, a 12% increase from the same period last year. That figure includes annual and monthly fees associated with Prime memberships, as well as other subscription services such as its music and e-books platforms.
The FTC said Amazon deliberately made it difficult for customers to purchase an item without also subscribing to Prime. In some cases, consumers were presented with a button to complete their transactions — which did not clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime, the agency said.
Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made canceling easier, according to an FTC complaint.
Internally, Amazon called the process “Iliad,” a reference to the ancient Greek poem about the lengthy siege of Troy during the Trojan war. The process requires the customer to affirm on three pages their desire to cancel membership.
The FTC began looking into Amazon’s Prime subscription practices in 2021 during the first Trump administration, but the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under former FTC Chair Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who had been appointed by Biden.
The agency filed the case months before it submitted an antitrust lawsuit against the retail and technology company, accusing it of having monopolistic control over online markets.
In 2019, Facebook, now known as Meta, was fined $5 billion for violating a FTC order against the company on user privacy. The fine Amazon now faces is the largest such penalty for violating an FTC rule that applies to all companies.
As part of the settlement terms, Amazon is prohibited from misrepresenting the terms of the subscriptions. It must fully disclose the costs to be incurred and obtain the customer’s express consent for the charge. For example, it must have a clear option for customers to accept or decline a Prime subscription being offered during a purchase, avoiding potentially confusing language such as: “No thanks, I don’t want free shipping.”
Automatic renewals for memberships must be clearly marked and the company is also required to use a cancellation process, which “must not be difficult, costly, confusing or time consuming,” according to the settlement.
Amazon said the settlement doesn’t require it to make any additional changes — only to maintain its current sign-up and cancellation process that it had put in place in recent years.
Sept. 23, 2025:
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal trial beginning in Amazon’s hometown this week is set to examine whether the online retailing giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime service and made it difficult to cancel after they did so.
The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon in U.S. District Court in Seattle two years ago and has alleged more than a decade of legal violations, including of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to help ensure that people know what they’re being charged for online.
Jury selection began Monday (Sept. 22, 2025), with opening statements to follow.
Prime provides subscribers with perks that include faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods for a fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month.
It’s a key — and growing — part of Amazon’s business, with more than 200 million members. In its latest quarterly report, the company in July reported more than $12 billion in net revenue for subscription services, which is a 12% increase from the same period last year. That figure includes annual and monthly fees associated with Prime memberships, as well as other subscription services such as its music and e-books platforms.
The company said it does clearly explain Prime’s terms before charging customers, and that it offers simple ways to cancel membership, including by phone, online and by online chat.
“Occasional customer frustrations and mistakes are inevitable — especially for a program as popular as Amazon Prime,” Amazon said in a trial brief filed last week. “Evidence that a small percentage of customers misunderstood Prime enrollment or cancellation does not prove that Amazon violated the law.”
But the FTC said Amazon deliberately made it difficult for customers to purchase an item without also subscribing to Prime. In some cases, consumers were presented with a button to complete their transactions — which didn’t clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime, the agency said.
“Amazon has long known that millions of its customers struggled with enrollment and cancellation of its subscription service, Prime,” the FTC said in its trial brief. “Millions of consumers accidentally enrolled in Prime without knowledge or consent, but Amazon refused to fix this known problem, described internally by employees as an ‘unspoken cancer’ because clarity adjustments would lead to a drop in subscribers.”
Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made canceling easier, the complaint said.
Internally, Amazon called the process “Iliad,” a reference to the ancient Greek poem about the lengthy siege of Troy during the Trojan war. The process requires the customer to affirm on three pages their desire to cancel membership.
U.S. District Judge John Chun, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, issued an order last week affirming that the Restore Online Customers’ Confidence Act applies to Prime. He also limited some of the legal defenses Amazon may offer at trial and sided with the FTC on its claim that Amazon violated the law by collecting customers’ billing information before disclosing Prime’s terms.
But Chun said several other issues remain for the jury to decide, including whether Amazon’s disclosures of the material terms of Prime membership are “clear and conspicuous” and whether the “Illiad” cancellation method is “simple,” as the law requires.
Chun also ruled that two Amazon executives named as individual defendants — Neil Lindsay and Jamil Ghani — were so entwined with the Prime program that they will personally face liability if the jury sides with the FTC. A third, Russell Grandinetti, could also potentially face personal liability if the jury so decides.
Amazon said a statement Monday: “The bottom line is that neither Amazon nor the individual defendants did anything wrong — we remain confident that the facts will show these executives acted properly and we always put customers first.”
The FTC, which declined to comment Monday, began looking into Amazon’s Prime subscription practices in 2021 during the first Trump administration, but the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under former FTC Chair Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who had been appointed by Biden.
The agency filed the case months before it submitted an antitrust lawsuit against the retail and technology company, accusing it of having monopolistic control over online markets.
In July, Chun admonished Amazon for withholding 70,000 documents from the FTC, including documents improperly marked as containing internal legal advice, saying that conduct was “tantamount to bad faith.”
Meanwhile, like other tech companies, Amazon has been attempting to forge friendlier ties with President Donald Trump, who repeatedly criticized the company during his first term.
In December, Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, along with other tech leaders, was also a guest at the inauguration.
Earlier this year, Amazon’s Prime Video service began streaming “The Apprentice,” the long-running TV show that boosted Trump’s profile before he ran for president. The company is also working on a documentary that offers an “unprecedented behind-the-scenes look” into the life of first lady Melania Trump.
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