Amazon Faces Jury Trial Over Alleged Deceptive Practices in Prime Membership Sign-Up and Cancellation

In a Seattle courtroom, Amazon faces allegations from the U.S. government regarding its flagship subscription service, Prime. The federal suit claims that Amazon deceptively signed up consumers into Prime memberships by intentionally making cancellation processes complex and hard to navigate.

The case is one of the most significant federal actions against a global corporation, with a jury deciding whether Amazon violated legal norms. Oral arguments for this nearly month-long trial are set to commence on Tuesday.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Amazon of breaching consumer protection and competition laws through manipulative tactics during the enrollment process for Prime, a service costing $139 annually or $14.99 monthly. Amazon denies any wrongdoing.

In 2021, Amazon reported that over 200 million people worldwide subscribed to Prime, marking the last time it publicly disclosed membership figures.

This lawsuit serves as a prelude to another FTC lawsuit accusing Amazon of operating as a monopoly. Amazon has contested this claim, stating that the suit is “wrong on the facts and law.” The subsequent trial is scheduled for early 2027 before the same judge, John Chun of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

The FTC alleges that millions of consumers inadvertently subscribed to Prime due to Amazon’s use of what are known as dark patterns—manipulative design elements that trick users into decisions they would not otherwise have made. Examples provided by regulators include a large yellow button offering “Free Two-Day Shipping” as an easy way to sign up with minimal details about recurring membership costs, versus a small blue hyperlink “No thanks, I do not want fast, free shipping” that avoids Prime enrollment.

Conversely, the FTC describes a complicated process to cancel a Prime subscription, consisting of four pages and sixteen clicks, internally dubbed by Amazon employees as the “Iliad Flow,” alluding to the epic ancient Greek poem about the prolonged Trojan War.

“Millions of consumers accidentally enrolled in Prime without knowledge or consent,” the FTC states in its trial brief. “However, Amazon refused to rectify this known issue because clarity adjustments would lead to a decrease in subscribers.”

Amazon argues that Prime members are drawn by the program’s benefits rather than design tricks. It maintains that disclosures and designs align with or even exceed industry standards.

“Occasional customer confusion and errors are inevitable—especially for a popular program like Amazon Prime,” the company’s trial brief states. “Evidence of a small percentage of customers misunderstanding Prime enrollment or cancellation does not prove that Amazon violated the law.”

Amazon also defends three executives named individually in the FTC lawsuit, alongside the company as a whole. In July, Judge Chun formally reprimanded Amazon lawyers for certain legal tactics in the case.

The FTC accused Amazon of concealing incriminating evidence by labeling filings as privileged without proper justification. After Amazon reviewed its privilege logs, the company withdrew almost all of its privilege claims and produced nearly 70,000 documents to the FTC on the eve of the discovery cutoff date.

The judge ruled that this conduct was “tantamount to bad faith” and motivated by a desire to gain a tactical advantage. Judge Chun has sided with the FTC in several procedural rulings, also denying Amazon’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The FTC’s investigation of Amazon began during the first Trump administration and was not filed until 2023, under the leadership of Lina Khan, a prominent Biden appointee.