Amazon’s Prime Sign-Up Practices to be Decided by Jury

A jury in Seattle is set to determine whether Amazon illegally misled users into signing up for its Prime service. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against the e-commerce giant, alleging that Amazon employed deceptive and intricate designs to coerce users into subscribing to Prime and made it overly difficult to cancel their memberships. The FTC claims that Amazon engaged in these practices for “several years.”

The jury selection took place on Monday, and the trial is expected to last approximately three weeks. Amazon has not yet responded to requests for comment.

This legal action is part of a broader effort by the FTC to scrutinize the practices of major online corporations. In April, the FTC proposed a new rule that would require companies to make canceling online services as straightforward as signing up for them.

“Americans are growing weary of being tricked by dark patterns and trapped in subscriptions that they don’t want or find difficult to cancel,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a press release at the time. She added, “The Commission is proposing a rule that would require companies to make cancellations as easy as sign-ups.”

The FTC initially filed its lawsuit against Amazon in June 2023, asserting that the company used “dark patterns” to deceive consumers into enrolling in Prime. The FTC alleges that the Prime enrollment process was intentionally structured to lead consumers to subscribe without their explicit consent. Furthermore, the Commission claims that Amazon made it challenging for consumers to terminate their Prime subscriptions by requiring them to navigate through “multiple compulsory steps.”

The proposed rule mandates that companies obtain explicit consent before charging consumers for automatically renewing subscriptions. It also requires companies to ensure that consumers can easily cancel online subscriptions using the same method they initially used to subscribe. For example, if a consumer signed up for a subscription online, they must be able to cancel it online as well.