New York — The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on Wednesday over what it called a years-long effort to enroll consumers in its Prime program without consent and make it difficult for them to cancel their memberships.
In a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency accused Amazon of using deceptive designs, known as “dark patterns”, to trick consumers into enrolling in the program. For. It said the option to buy items on Amazon without a Prime membership was more difficult in many cases. It also said that consumers were sometimes presented with a button to complete their transactions — and the button didn’t explicitly state that it was also enrolling them in Prime.
The regulatory agency, led by Big Tech critic Leena Khan, also alleged that the company’s leadership slowed down or rejected changes that would have made it easier to cancel membership.
It said those patterns were violating the FTC Act and another law called the Restore Online Shopper’s Confidence Act.
Launched in 2005, Prime has more than 200 million members worldwide who pay $139 per year, or $14.99 per month, for fast shipping and other perks, such as free delivery and returns.
In a news release announcing the lawsuit, the FTC said that although its complaint has been heavily edited, it contains “numerous allegations” that support its allegations against Amazon.
It also accused the company of attempting to obstruct the agency’s probe into Prime, set to begin in 2021, on several counts.
“Amazon tricked people and tricked them into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but costing them a lot of money,” Khan said in a statement. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon has faced heightened regulatory scrutiny in recent years as it expands its e-commerce dominance and dips its toes into other markets, including groceries and health care.
In 2021, Amazon unsuccessfully asked that Khan recuse himself from a separate antitrust investigation into his business, arguing that his public criticism of the company’s market power prior to joining the government had made him a fair candidate. made it impossible to be Khan burst onto the antitrust scene in 2017 as a Yale law student with his largely scholarly work, “The Amazon Antitrust Paradox.
The lawsuit follows another victory by the agency a few weeks ago related to Amazon. Earlier this month, Amazon agreed to pay a $25 million civil penalty to settle allegations of violating the Child Privacy Act by storing children’s voice and location data recorded by its popular Alexa voice assistant Did. It also agreed to pay $5.8 million in customer refunds for alleged privacy violations involving its Ring doorbell camera.
