{"id":164038,"date":"2025-09-23T14:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164038\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T14:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:56:10","slug":"trial-begins-in-ftc-case-alleging-amazon-duped-prime-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164038\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial begins in FTC case alleging Amazon duped Prime customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A building in downtown San Diego is wrapped in Amazon Prime advertising. The FTC has accused the company of failing to disclose Prime’s terms and making it difficult for customers to exit the sign-up process.Mike Blake\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Amazon AMZN-Q<\/a> duped tens of millions of Prime customers by signing them up without consent and locking them in with overly complex cancellation methods, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will seek to show at a trial starting in Seattle on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The civil case against the online retail giant and three of its executives is a key test of the FTC\u2019s tough-on-tech stance and could force Amazon to pay damages worth hundreds of millions of dollars, plus fines of up to US$53,000 per violation. It could also damage the image of a company that describes itself as obsessed with making customers\u2019 lives easier.<\/p>\n

Amazon has denied wrongdoing by the company or its executives, saying Prime\u2019s terms are clearly disclosed and there are several ways to cancel. The case is part of a bipartisan crackdown on what the FTC says are deceptive cancellation practices. <\/p>\n

The FTC started probing Amazon\u2019s subscription practices during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term and the case was filed during Joe Biden\u2019s presidency. In April, the FTC sued Uber alleging it deceptively marketed its Uber One subscription, and sued the operators of gym chain LA Fitness in August for burdensome membership cancellation requirements. Those probes began during the Biden administration. <\/p>\n

Prime subscribers pay US$14.99 for free expedited shipping, access to Amazon\u2019s streaming video service and other benefits. Amazon recruits new subscribers by offering free trials on its website using pitches such as: \u201cGet FREE Same-Day Delivery.\u201d But the FTC says Amazon has failed to clearly and conspicuously disclose to customers that selecting that option will enroll them in Prime and eventually result in monthly subscription charges. <\/p>\n

Amazon engaged in deceptive practices, judge rules ahead of Prime signups trial<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. FTC tells Amazon, Walmart to crack down on deceptive \u2018Made in USA\u2019 claims<\/a><\/p>\n

While Amazon tested changes that would make those terms clearer between 2017 and 2022, executives several times rejected them to prevent sign-ups from declining, the FTC said. The company did not adopt such changes until 2022, while it was under investigation by the FTC, the agency said. The agency sued Amazon the next year. <\/p>\n

The FTC says Amazon\u2019s failure to disclose Prime\u2019s terms, along with multi-screen cancellation processes designed to keep customers from quitting Prime, violated the Restore Online Shoppers\u2019 Confidence Act (ROSCA). Amazon signed up 40 million shoppers for Prime without their consent, an expert witness for the FTC has estimated. And the company\u2019s own data shows that tens of millions of users abandoned the cancellation process midway through, an FTC official said. <\/p>\n

The company has accused the FTC of trying to stretch the law and misinterpreting its internal efforts to understand and improve customers\u2019 experience. Additionally, ROSCA \u201cdoes not require that a cancellation mechanism be well-promoted or popular,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last about a month and feature testimony from customers as well as current and former Amazon employees. A jury of nine people will decide whether Amazon violated the law. <\/p>\n

If the company is found liable, the judge will decide what penalties to impose and the amount of any damages. The FTC comes into trial at an advantage, after winning a ruling<\/a> that Amazon violated ROSCA when it collected customers\u2019 billing information in the form of saved payment methods before disclosing Prime\u2019s terms and conditions. The judge also ruled that the three executives are liable for any violations the jury finds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A building in downtown San Diego is wrapped in Amazon Prime advertising. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-164038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}