The lawsuit between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Amazon over the Prime membership program officially went to trial this week, marking the commencement of a highly anticipated legal battle that has entered the substantive trial phase. The FTC has accused the retail giant of deceptive practices in the registration and cancellation process of its Prime program, alleging that for years, Amazon has been enrolling consumers as Amazon Prime members without their consent and making it complicated for users to cancel their Prime membership.
The case was filed by the Federal Trade Commission in June 2023, and the trial is taking place at a federal court in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered. Jury selection began on Monday, September 22nd, with opening arguments scheduled for Tuesday, September 23rd. The trial process is expected to last approximately one month.
In 2005, Amazon launched the Prime program, which now boasts over 200 million members worldwide. The program, which costs $139 annually, offers benefits such as free shipping and streaming video services, generating billions of dollars in revenue for Amazon.
The FTC alleges that Amazon lured customers into subscribing to Prime in violation of antitrust and consumer protection laws. Amazon is said to have used ambiguous buttons on checkout pages, making it difficult for consumers to realize they were agreeing to join Prime at the time of purchase. Internal Amazon staff described this practice as a “silent cancer” and referred to canceling Prime as a “labyrinthine mechanism,” requiring users to navigate through four pages and face 15 options, internally dubbed as “Iliad,” alluding to the prolonged war in Homer’s epic.
Amazon vehemently denies any wrongdoing, with a spokesperson stating that the company has always maintained transparency regarding Prime terms, and that “a few customer misunderstandings or operational errors do not mean Amazon violated the law.”
In a recent court filing, Amazon stated, “Occasional customer dissatisfaction and errors are unavoidable, especially for a popular service like Prime. A small fraction of customers misunderstanding the registration or cancellation process does not prove Amazon has violated any laws.”
Last week, the FTC scored a preliminary win in the case. Presiding Judge John Chun ruled that Amazon and two of its executives unlawfully collected user payment information before clearly disclosing service terms, thus violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA).
Judge Chun indicated that if the jury supports the FTC’s position, Prime head Jamil Ghani and former Prime business director, now Senior Vice President of the Health Department, Neil Lindsay, will be held personally responsible as defendants.
Amazon’s International Consumer Senior Vice President, Russell Grandinetti, is also named in the lawsuit, but Judge Chun argued that compared to Ghani and Lindsay, Grandinetti had a lower level of involvement in Prime’s operations.
In July of this year, Judge Chun accused Amazon’s lawyers of withholding thousands of documents from the FTC and abusing legal privileges to evade scrutiny. Among these documents is a 2020 email where Amazon retail chief Doug Herrington referred to “subscription pushing” as a “sneaky” practice, calling the company’s CEO Bezos the company’s “Chief Dark Arts Officer.”
This case is part of the FTC’s broader crackdown on so-called “dark patterns” design. The commission has been investigating such behavior since 2022. “Dark patterns” refer to deceptive designs that lead users to purchase products or services by manipulating privacy.
In April, the FTC also filed a similar “dark patterns” lawsuit against Uber, accusing the company of deceptive billing and cancellation practices in its Uber One subscription. Uber has contested the FTC’s allegations.
Another separate antitrust lawsuit against Amazon is set to go to trial in February 2027.