Amazon Sued Over 'Manipulative' And 'Deceptive' Prime Sign Up Practices

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Amazon over the sign-up and cancellation process for Prime membership. The agency claims that Amazon uses "'dark patterns' to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions."

The FTC said that Amazon offered numerous opportunities to subscribe to Prime during the checkout process and made it challenging to locate options to purchase products without a Prime subscription.

"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," the FTC wrote.

Once consumers had signed up for Prime, Amazon made it very difficult to cancel. According to a report by Business Insider, Amazon employees referred to the process as the "Iliad," a reference to the epic poem written by Homer.

"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. "These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike."