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Sep 25, 2025  |  
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Annabella Rosciglione


NextImg:Amazon to pay $2.5 billion in FTC case

Amazon will pay $2.5 billion in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to settle claims that it misled millions of customers into signing up for its Prime membership.

The FTC said Thursday that Amazon will pay $1 billion in civil penalties, which marks the largest fine in FTC history, and $1.5 billion to customers who were unintentionally enrolled in an Amazon Prime membership or were deterred from canceling their memberships. The settlement stemmed from a 2023 lawsuit from the FTC, which said Amazon “duped millions of consumers” into enrolling in Prime by using “manipulative, coercive or deceptive” design tactics on its website.

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In agreeing to settle, Amazon did not admit or deny wrongdoing. 

Under the agreement, within 90 days, Amazon will give $51 to customers who have undergone the sign-up process that the FTC challenged. To qualify, customers must fit certain criteria, including hardly using Prime benefits like video streaming after they were enrolled.

The settlement comes days into a jury trial in Seattle that began this week.

Amazon also agreed to notify other customers that they can submit a claim if they believe that they were unintentionally enrolled into a Prime membership, or if they wished to cancel but were enticed not to by offers during the cancellation process.

The company claimed it clearly lays out Prime’s terms and conditions before charging customers and offers simple ways to cancel.

“Occasional customer frustrations and mistakes are inevitable — especially for a program as popular as Amazon Prime,” Amazon said in a trial brief filed last month.

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The FTC maintained that Amazon has made it difficult for customers without Prime to purchase an item without purchasing Prime. The agency said that in some cases, customers were presented with an option to complete their transaction, but that button did not clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime.

The FTC first began looking into Amazon’s Prime subscription practices in 2021 under the first Trump administration, but the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under former President Joe Biden’s FTC Chairwoman, Lina Khan.