According to a lawsuit filed by the US FTC, Amazon tricked millions of customers into signing up for Prime ‘without their consent’
According to news agency Reuters, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Amazon with signing up millions of customers for its Prime membership programme without their consent and making the cancellation procedure difficult.
The commission filed complaints against the e-commerce behemoth in a federal court in Seattle, alleging that Amazon “knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in Amazon Prime.” The business responded to the accusations in a statement, claiming that they are “false on the facts and the law.”
According to the report, the FTC claims that Amazon used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions” and is requesting “civil penalties and permanent injunction” to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Amazon said, “The truth is that customers adore Prime, and by design, we make it clear and easy for customers to sign up for or cancel their Prime membership.” It claimed that in the midst of the conversations with the personnel of the commission, the body secretly filed a complaint.
The FTC reiterated that Amazon’s Prime programme, which produces $25 billion in revenue annually, is the biggest subscription model in the world. Discounted prices, free delivery, and a music and movie library are just a few advantages of the service. Over 200 million people utilise the service worldwide, and the US subscribers inject $139 annually into the income pool.
According to the complaint, Amazon changed its cancellation procedure as a result of intense FTC pressure. However, the protocol “requires five clicks on desktop and six clicks on mobile for consumers to cancel from Amazon.com.”
When the FTC claimed that Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera unit was being used to spy on consumers, the corporation and the agency reached a $ 5.8 million settlement, which was revealed on May 31. Later, the agency said that the e-commerce site had reached a $25 million settlement with the privacy complaints. According to the research, the platform stored Alexa recordings for longer than required and did not remove them when parents requested that them be deleted.
The day when the complaint was filed fell on the same weekday that Prime Day announcements were made. Speaking of India, Amazon recently made headlines there for launching the Prime Lite yearly plan there.
