On Thursday, September 25, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon, the company founded by Jeff Bezos. According to the FTC, Amazon enrolled millions of Americans into Amazon Prime without their consent, making it extremely difficult for them to cancel. As a result, Amazon has been ordered to pay a $1 billion civil penalty and provide $1.5 billion in refunds to its customers. We take a look inside the settlement and provide details on who can expect to receive money in the settlement, below.
What to know about the Amazon settlement
The Amazon settlement was originally brought to light in 2023, when the FTC filed a lawsuit against the online shopping service over claims that they had enrolled customers into their Prime membership service without permission. The case then remained stationary until a few days ago, when it went to trial and the court ordered Amazon to pay a $2.5 billion settlement—the second-largest ever obtained by the FTC.
“Today, the Trump-Vance FTC made history and secured a record-breaking, monumental win for the millions of Americans who are tired of deceptive subscriptions that feel impossible to cancel,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement yesterday, after the settlement news was made public. “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. Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets and making sure Amazon never does this again. The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to fighting back when companies try to cheat ordinary Americans out of their hard-earned pay.”
Along with the settlement, Amazon will have to modify some of its business practices, including eliminating a button that says “No, I don’t want free shipping” and providing more details to customers when they sign up for Amazon Prime. They must make it easier for customers to cancel their membership. Amazon must also pay for a third-party supervisor to track the company’s compliance.
“We respect the role the FTC has historically played in protecting consumers and promoting competition. Unfortunately, it appears the current FTC is radically departing from that approach, filing a misguided lawsuit against Amazon that would, if successful, force Amazon to engage in practices that actually harm consumers and the many businesses that sell in our store—such as having to feature higher prices, offer slower or less reliable Prime shipping, and make Prime more expensive and less convenient,” Amazon’s David Zapolsky, Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer, said in a statement.
“We fundamentally disagree with the FTC’s allegations—which are in many cases wrong or misleading—and with their overreaching and misguided approach to antitrust, which would harm consumers, hurt independent businesses, and upend long-standing and well-considered doctrines. We will contest this lawsuit, and we will also continue inventing to put our customers—both consumers and the businesses that sell in our store—first.”
Who will get money from the Amazon settlement?
To receive money from the Amazon settlement, you must have signed up for Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025 (you can check to see if this includes you by simply going to your Amazon account, clicking on settings and viewing the membership and subscriptions page, which will tell you when exactly you signed up).
From there, you will need to check if you signed up for it through the “challenged enrollment flow” (according to the FTC, that means “any version of the Universal Prime Decision Page, the Shipping Option Select Page, Prime Video enrollment flow or the Single Page Checkout”) and have yet to use more than three of the company’s services. If so, you will be in the first group of payouts and will not need to fill out a form. You will be automatically enrolled in the settlement and will get up to $51.
The second group of people who will receive money in the settlement will be those who attempted to cancel their membership during the five years but were unable to do so and didn’t utilize more than 10 Prime benefits within a 12-month period. Those people will receive a form to fill out 30 days after the first payment is sent out, but it’s unclear how much they are expected to receive.
As of publication, there is no news on when Amazon customers can expect the settlement money. There is also no news on how the payments will be sent out.
“Amazon and our executives have always followed the law, and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” Amazon said in a statement. “We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world. We will continue to do so, and look forward to what we’ll deliver for Prime members in the coming years.”
