Amazon ran into some problems with how they tricked people into signing up for Amazon Prime. Further, they messed up with how they made it really difficult to cancel after doing so. The Federal Trade Commission came after Amazon with a case and put it into the courts, with it starting this week. Amazon, however, came forward, and apparently moved to settle for a new record amount for the FTC. $1 Billion in civil damages, plus another $1.5 Billion that will be paid back to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or deterred from cancelling subscriptions. This consumer side will be an automatic refund to customers who meet certain requirements, already established, and will be about $50 apiece. This doesn’t even resolve all of the mess that Amazon is in, but it starts down a very interesting road.
Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission which said the online giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships, and made it difficult to cancel after they did so.
