Financial TimesFinancial Times

Amazon ‘tricked and trapped’ customers with Prime subscriptions, FTC claims

By Patrick McGee and Stefania Palma

21 Jun 2023 · 2 min read

Editor's Note

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the company of deceiving customers into signing up for its Prime service without their consent. The FT has the story.

The US Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon, accusing it of duping customers into signing up for its Prime service without their consent and “sabotaging” efforts to undo their subscriptions.

The FTC said in the heavily redacted complaint filed on Wednesday that Amazon had used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.”

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