Amazon sued by Federal Trade Commission for what it called a yearlong effort to enrol consumers without consent into its Amazon Prime paid subscription program, and making it hard for the consumer to cancel.
Lawsuit filed in Seattle by the FTC, the US agency charged with consumer protection, alleging that Bezoz tech behemoth ‘knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in Amazon Prime’ through a secret project internally called ‘Iliad’.
Amazon rejected the charges, calling them ‘false on the facts and the law’.
There are more than 200 million subscribers to Amazon Prime globally. The service, which offers shipping perks, access to streaming movies and more, costs $139 a year or $14.99 monthly in the US and £95 per year in the UK.
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The FTC lawsuit talks about how Amazon used website designs that pushed customers into agreeing to enrol in Amazon Prime subscription which gets automatically renew as they were making purchases. The company attempted to make it difficult for users to opt out of auto-enrolment.
It also said Amazon put customers seeking to cancel through a cumbersome ‘four-page, six-click, fifteen option’ process, which the FTC said was known internally as ‘Iliad’ in a nod to the Greek epic about the ‘long, arduous Trojan War’.
It is reported that Amazon altered the cancellation process shortly before the lawsuit was filed, the FTC said the company’s tactics broke laws aimed at protecting shoppers.
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"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," FTC Chair Lina Khan said as per BBC report.
The FTC is seeking a court order to force Amazon to change its practices, as well as financial penalties in an unspecified amount.
