The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, Inc. on Wednesday, alleging its years-long effort to enroll consumers into its Prime program without their consent while knowingly making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions to Prime.
Amazon fired back on Wednesday, saying the ‘the claims are false on the facts and the law.’
An Amazon spokesperson emailed The Free Press, saying, “The FTC’s claims are false on the facts and the law. The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design, we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership.”
In the news: FTC Sues Amazon For ‘Tricking’ Customers Into Prime Accounts
“We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the Commissioners themselves before they filed a lawsuit. While the absence of that normal course engagement is extremely disappointing, we look forward to proving our case in court,” said Amazon.
In the complaint filed on Wednesday, the FTC says that Amazon has knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in Amazon Prime. Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.
The FTC added that Amazon also knowingly complicated the cancellation process for Prime subscribers who sought to end their membership.
“As with all our products and services, we continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience, and we look forward to the facts becoming clear as this case plays out,” said an Amazon spokesperson.
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