Amazon reaches $2.5 billion settlement with FTC in Prime membership case

Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a Federal Trade Commission case over whether it duped customers into signing up for Prime and made it difficult for customers to cancel their membership. 

As part of the settlement, announced Thursday, Amazon will provide $1.5 billion in refunds to customers that were harmed by what FTC referred to as “deceptive Prime enrollment practices.” The retail giant will also be forced to end unlawful cancellation practices.

“The evidence showed that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement, adding, “Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again.”

—This is a developing story and will be updated.

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