The United States Federal Trade Commission has initiated an action against Amazon based on its Prime membership process whereby the FTC claims Amazon tricked people into signing up for the membership program then made it hard for members to cancel their subscriptions.
The FTC said is charging Amazon knowingly is duping millions of consumers into enrolling in Amazon Prime using manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as dark patterns to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing memberships, according to the FTC suit. FTC asserted in its claim that Amazon knowingly complicated the cancellation process for Prime memberships. FTC stated Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made it easier for users to cancel Prime subscriptions because those changes adversely affected Amazon’s bottom line.
At this time, the FTC noted its complaint is significantly redacted, although it has told the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, where the FTC suit is filed, that it does not find the need for ongoing secrecy compelling. Yet, the FTC maintained, the complaint contains a number of allegations related to the company’s decision not to make changes that would prevent non-consensual enrollment in Prime and allow consumers attempting to unsubscribe from the service to do so more easily.
In specific allegations, FTC contends Amazon’s online checkout process confronted consumers with numerous opportunities to subscribe to Amazon Prime at $14.99 a month, which made the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime more difficult for consumers to locate. In some cases, according to the FTC, the button presented to consumers to complete a transaction did not clearly state that, in choosing that pay option, they also were agreeing to join Prime for a recurring subscription. If they chose to drop membership, consumers faced multiple steps to actually accomplish cancellation, according to the complaint.
The complaint further alleges Amazon was aware of consumers being non-consensually enrolled and that management knew the process to cancel Prime membership was confusing and didn’t take meaningful steps to address the issues until they were aware of the FTC investigation.
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” said FTC chair Lina Khan in announcing the complaint against the company. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike. The FTC will continue to vigorously protect Americans from ‘dark patterns,’ and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets.”
Amazon at presstime had not responded to a HomePage News request for comment on the FTC lawsuit.
