Security News > 2023 > June > FTC: Amazon trapped millions into hard-to-cancel Prime memberships
The Federal Trade Commission says Amazon allegedly used dark patterns to trick millions of users into enrolling in its Prime program and trapping them by making it as difficult as possible to cancel the automatically-renewing subscriptions.
In the complaint, the FTC says Amazon's deceptive techniques manipulated consumers into signing up for Prime subscriptions without even knowing it, violating both the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act and the FTC Act.
The FTC further alleges that Amazon implemented a cancellation process that deterred customers from successfully calling their Prime subscription.
"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," said FTC Chair Lina Khan.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the FTC also charged Amazon with violating Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by failing to delete voice recordings and geolocation information on parents' requests.
"As part of the settlement, we agreed to make a small modification to our already strong practices, and will remove child profiles that have been inactive for more than 18 months unless a parent or guardian chooses to keep them," Amazon told BleepingComputer in May. An Amazon spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on FTC's Amazon Prime complaint when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.