Amazon will pay $2.5 billion in penalties and refunds as part of a settlement against allegations that it enrolled its customers in the Prime service without their consent, federal officials said in a Sept. 25 statement.
It means that some Amazon customers who were or are enrolled in Prime will qualify for a payment. Of the $2.5 billion amount, $1.5 billion will go directly to Prime subscribers, which will be capped at $51 per customer. The other $1 billion will be paid as a civil penalty by the company, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said.
The payout and settlement are in response to a 2023 lawsuit filed by the FTC against Amazon in June 2023 that alleged the company deceived tens of millions of Amazon customers into signing up for Prime before disrupting customers’ attempts to cancel the service….