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Technology|Did Amazon Trick Customers Into Prime? A Jury Will Decide.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/technology/amazon-ftc-subscription-practices.html
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A trial in federal court in Seattle will determine if millions of customers signed up for Prime because it’s a great deal, or because they were duped.
By Karen Weise
Karen Weise is based in Seattle and has covered Amazon since 2018.
Sept. 22, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET
A trial in federal court in Seattle set to begin this week will cut to the heart of how Amazon defines itself as a champion for the hundreds of millions of consumers who regularly use its online shopping service.
The Federal Trade Commission claims, in a lawsuit filed two years ago, that Amazon tricked tens of millions of people into signing up for its Prime membership program, and then made it hard for customers to cancel when they wanted out.
“Amazon was aware for years that it was taking consumers’ money without their consent, yet chose to do nothing about it,” the F.T.C. wrote in a recent court filing.
Amazon, which denies those claims, hopes a jury will believe that customers signed up for Prime simply because they thought it was a good deal.
“The way Amazon drives Prime subscribers is by making the service useful and valuable,” Mark Blafkin, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement. “And our approach works — Prime, with hundreds of millions of members, is among the highest performing subscription programs of any kind, as measured by renewal rates and customer satisfaction.”
Though less sweeping than the F.T.C.’s antitrust case against Amazon, targets the company for the way it runs a popular subscription program central to its business and ubiquitous in the lives of many of its customers.
