Amazon will pay $2.5 billion after reaching a “historic” settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “for its deceptive practices” of online sign-up for its Prime membership and making it difficult for millions of affected people to cancel.
The federal agency said Thursday, Sept. 25, that the Jeff Bezos-founded company “used deceptive methods” to enroll consumers in Prime without their consent, in violation of FTC law and the Restoring Online Shopper Confidence Act (ROSCA), and then “made it extremely difficult to cancel.”
Amazon to pay fine to U.S. over Prime
FTC secures historic $2.5 billion settlement against Amazon. Agency alleged that Amazon used deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime subscriptions and made it exceedingly difficult to cancel: https://t.co/c6e1tpIgDi
– FTC (@FTC) September 25, 2025
The settlement, one of the largest in the agency’s history and unveiled by the FTC on Thursday, September 24, comes two days after a trial began in the city of Seattle.
Under the settlement, in which Amazon neither admits nor denies the allegations, the retail giant will pay a $1 billion fine.
In addition, it will have to reimburse 1.5 billion to consumers affected by such practices, and will have to make significant changes to Prime enrollment and deregistration.
Among the changes, Amazon must include a button for customers to reject Prime.
As well as it must clearly explain the terms of such subscription, such as the cost, the date and frequency of charges to consumers, whether the subscription automatically renews and what to do for cancellation, according to an FTC release.
Amazon must also pay an independent third-party monitor to oversee its compliance with the consumer redress process.
The FTC charged in 2023 that the company and several of its executives deliberately deceived millions of consumers into signing up for Prime.
Today, the FTC made history and secured a monumental and unprecedented victory for the millions of Americans who are tired of deceptive subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel
Andrew N. Ferguson, president of FTC
According to Ferguson, the evidence showed that Amazon “used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into signing up for Prime and then made it extremely difficult for consumers to cancel their subscription.”
The FTC indicated that Amazon documents filed before trial showed that its executives and employees discussed these registration and deregistration problems.
And that they made comments describing that subscription as “a somewhat murky world” and “an unspoken cancer”.
Some 200 million people subscribe to Prime in the U.S.
With information from EFE
Filed under: Amazon receives fine for Prime
