FTC Sues Amazon For ‘Tricking’ Customers

Amazon allegedly used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive 'dark patterns' to talk consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.

The FTC filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Wednesday.

The complaint alleges that the e-commerce giant has tricked millions of consumers into signing up for its Prime subscription service through deceptive user interface designs.

Specifically, Amazon allegedly used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive ‘dark patterns’ to talk consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.

The complaint added that Amazon intentionally made it difficult to cancel subscriptions than enrolling in Prime, creating a ‘labyrinth” cancellation process intended to distract consumers from following through with their opt out intentions.

Amazon called the FTC’s claims false on the facts and the law and said it lacks professionalism by failing to notify the company before the complaint was filed.