You must have heard of the recent case where the FTC went after Amazon for some shady and manipulative practices that they were doing on their platform to lure in more and more Prime subscribers, but in the end, that didn’t work out pretty well for them. See, after this case went on in the courtrooms for 2 or 3 years, now, in September 2025, we finally saw the case FTC v Amazon Settlement. And just so you know, the settlement isn’t just out there to send a message to the company itself, nah, if you were the impacted or affected customer because of the manipulative practices of Amazon, then you can be a part of this settlement. So just keep on reading because we’ll talk about that as well.
How Did This All Begin?
If you’re here for the backstory of this case, see, this actually goes back to 2021 when the FTC began looking at the way Amazon was advertising and the way encouraging users to subscribe to Prime membership. That’s when the red flags went off, and there were some legal actions taken down the line. And if you don’t know what we’re talking about specifically, see, when the FTC looked into the way the checkout buttons and page were designed, it looked more like a proper trick to make sure that most people subscribe to their Prime membership. So sure enough, by 2023, to be exact, the legal action was taken against them, and that’s why this case became a big thing.
What Did the FTC Accuse Amazon Of?
Well, since we already gave the hints of it to you, but still, to sum it up, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claimed that Amazon went out of its way to make it very easy to sign up for Prime and, on the other hand, make it very difficult to cancel it. Like, if you have been through that, you must have felt the same way at some point. And sure enough, these were the manipulative tactics used by Amazon that were referred to as “dark patterns” by the FTC, which the mainstream media picked on and talked about a lot.
And sure enough, when you, as a user, just want to cancel the Prime subscription, it was made so hectic of a task on purpose that even the Amazon workers gave it the name “Iliad.” In the FTC’s eyes, this surely was something that was worth looking into, and they took legal action against it.
What’s Included in the $2.5 Billion Settlement?
Yup, sure enough, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion in total, divided into two main parts:
- $1 billion as a civil penalty.
- $1.5 billion set aside to refund customers affected by unwanted Prime charges.
Surely, this wasn’t a big thing for the Amazon, looking at how big the company really is, but this entire legal matter surely sends a message to everyone that their interests are being looked into, and some big company can’t just exploit their users whenever they want to.
Who Will Get Refunds?
Alright, now talking about the specifics of the settlement in the case of the users who were impacted, see, provided you were an Amazon Prime member in the period from June 2019 to June 2025, and on the condition that you either barely used the service or had difficulties in canceling it, you could get a maximum refund of $51, which is approximately equivalent to one year of Prime.
There are two ways refunds will be processed:
- Automatic Refunds: In case you’re already qualified for it, the refund will be directly sent to your card or account within about 90 days.
- Claim-Based Refunds: Just keep on checking back your email because Amazon will contact you with a form if needed, you know, giving you about six months to submit your details.