If you’ve ever felt like Amazon has mysteriously charged you for a Prime subscription, or it took forever to cancel it once you’d paid, you might find this article interesting.
You’re not the only American who has had a hard time canceling their Amazon Prime subscription. Jeff Bezos’ company has been so aggressive in promoting its membership that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has had to step in and take them to court. To settle the charges, Amazon has agreed to pay a whopping $2.5 billion. Of this amount, $1.5 billion will be used directly for refunds to all affected customers. This is the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the FCC in consumer protection matters. In the end, it has been a bit costly for Amazon to push membership so hard.
If you had problems with your Prime membership in the United States between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, you’re in luck, as you can receive a membership refund.
What did Amazon do to get fined?
Although we are used to different platforms and their manipulations to keep us paying for their subscription, these design techniques are deceptive and manipulative. They are known in the digital world as “dark patterns.” These are interface tricks and web designs that manipulate us into making decisions that benefit the company.
The clearest—and most benign—example is when a website asks you to accept or reject cookies. Here, the button to accept all cookies is much larger, more colorful, and easier to see, right? Well, the same goes for the buttons Amazon used to pay for a membership even though you were actively looking to cancel it. Canceling Amazon Prime became a competition to find the smallest, grayest, and hardest-to-find tab on the entire website.
The e-commerce giant used these dark patterns to allegedly induce unwanted subscriptions. The FTC specifically identified four flawed enrollment paths, called Challenged Enrollment Flows. Such practices violate the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. The routes that have been specified as manipulative—and therefore illegal—were the following: the Prime Universal Decision Page, the Shipping Option Selection Page, the Prime Video enrollment flow, and the Single Page Checkout.
The result was that users accidentally subscribed or when trying to get “free shipping.” They realized their mistake and wanted to cancel, but the process was intentionally complicated, full of clicks and confusing options to discourage the user. It was like the bureaucratic test in that Asterix and Obelix movie.
Can you file a claim with Amazon?
Customers with premium accounts and billing addresses in the United States are eligible for this compensation. They will receive the equivalent of one year’s membership fee ($51). To qualify, you must meet one of the following criteria within the 2019-2025 period:
- You signed up through one of the four misleading channels we detailed above.
- You tried—unsuccessfully—to cancel your membership.
Keep in mind that the total refund will depend on the number of people who claim their Amazon Prime payment. Let’s be honest, it will be difficult to end up with $1.5 billion, even if the entire US requests a refund.
For customers who were clear victims of the deceptive tactic, most will receive an automatic refund from Amazon. The payment deadline is 90 days from the approval of the agreement. So the deadline will be December 25, 2025 (not bad as a Christmas present, right?).
How does Amazon know which customers were misled? One clue is if you ended up signing up and used three or fewer Amazon Prime benefits in a 12-month period. In other words, you subscribed but didn’t use free shipping, Prime Video, or Audible, for example.
If you used Prime benefits often but still qualify, you will need to submit a form. Amazon will send this form to eligible customers within 30 days after automatic payments to the first group of victims have been completed. This notification will be sent in early 2026. Once the form is sent, you will have 180 days to complete and submit it. Once your claim is approved, Amazon will have 30 days to issue your refund. Official notifications will come directly from Amazon or through the ftc.gov/amazon-refunds portal. Be wary of potential scammers who may try to contact you through other means.