The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington for allegedly hindering its customers from unsubscribing from Prime. The independent agency, which aims to protect individuals from deceptive and fraudulent practices and promote competition, alleged that Amazon manipulated so-called "dark patterns" to make it impossible for users to stop paying for the subscription.
In the lawsuit, the FTC specifies how Amazon tried to coerce customers into continuing their subscription to the paid version without their consent:
During Amazon’s online checkout process, consumers were faced with numerous opportunities to subscribe to Amazon Prime at $14.99/month. In many cases, the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime was more difficult for consumers to locate. In some cases, the button presented to consumers to complete their transaction did not clearly state that in choosing that option they were also agreeing to join Prime for a recurring subscription.
Through her Twitter account, FTC chairwoman Lina Khan detailed the reasons for taking legal action against the tech giant:
1. @FTC has taken action against @amazon for tricking users into signing up for Prime subscriptions—and then deliberately making it hard to cancel. We charge that these deceptive tactics violate the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. https://t.co/ud2j3xmFQ0
— Lina Khan (@linakhanFTC) June 21, 2023
In addition, Khan offered her solution to prevent further such frauds from occurring:
This lawsuit builds on our ongoing work to protect Americans from firms who trick people into subscriptions and then trap them by making it hard to cancel, including through using "dark patterns." Our proposed "click to cancel" rule would require that firms make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one.
