After doling out more than $845 million to former Amazon Prime customers, Amazon is expanding the qualifications needed for refunds stemming from its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
Three days into a trial last year, Amazon and the regulatory agency reached a settlement in which the e-commerce giant agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle claims it tricked customers into $139 Prime memberships. The settlement included a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in refunds.
In a Sept. 11 joint filing between the FTC and Amazon, the company said it’s finished the first two phase of its reimbursement process. At first, the company issued automatic payments up to $51 to Amazon Prime subscribers who enrolled between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, and had used Prime benefits no more than three times in a year. Amazon also opened a claims process, eligible for those who tried to cancel their Prime membership during those six years.
Since less than $1 billion of the allocated refunds have been issued, Amazon is now expanding eligibility to those who used Prime no more than four times in a year, and will keep broadening the pool of customers until the terms of the settlement are met.
Since those payments are dependent on customers accepting the refunds, if the total reimbursed funds don’t reach $1 billion by February 2027, Amazon will provide additional payments to customers who have already received funds, capping those at $149 for a total of $200.
The FTC claimed in its lawsuit, which was filed during the Biden administration, that Amazon engaged in deceptive Prime enrollment practices” and made it laborious to cancel Prime subscriptions.
Amazon denied any wrongdoing and said in a statement last year that the company and its leaders “have always followed the law.
As part of the settlement, the FTC said Amazon will be required to “clearly and conspicuously” disclose the terms of Prime memberships and make them easier to cancel.
Amazon said in response to the settlement that many of the changes outlined by the FTC were made years ago and that it won’t have to make additional changes. One of the defenses put forward by Amazon’s lawyers in opening statements during the trial was that the FTC hasn’t been clear how Amazon could satisfy federal requirements.
