The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon for tricking customers into Prime subscriptions. According to a lawsuit, the FTC says that Amazon “duped millions of customers” into enrolling in paid Prime accounts using “manipulative, coercive or deceptive” design tactics on its website known as “dark patterns.”
The suit says that Amazon then “knowingly complicated” the process of canceling Prime accounts that they did not want. Like a gym membership!
The FTC says that Amazon often added a Prime membership to users’ purchases and made it hard for them to figure out how to check out without it, meaning many were stuck with a monthly $14.99 purchase that they didn’t want.
Amazon denied this and sent this response to CNET:
“The FTC’s claims are false on the facts and the law. The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership. We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the Commissioners themselves before they filed a lawsuit.”
