A (0:00)

In one of the largest settlements in American history, on Thursday, September 25th, Amazon settled their case with the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, for a staggering $2.5 billion. And it's worth mentioning that over half of that money is actually earmarked for you, the customers, meaning that if you are an Amazon prime member, you can be getting a piece of that settlement. Let me briefly give you the history of the case and as well as how you can tell whether or not you actually qualify for this money. Now, the case itself, it originated from 2021, at the tail end of Trump's first term in office. That was when the FTC began investigating some of the practices that Amazon was implementing in their Amazon prime program. Specifically, at that time, you had the former Chairwoman of the FTC, Ms. Leena Khan. She accused Amazon of, quote, using manipulative web designs to enroll tens of millions of users in prime, while without clear consent and making cancellation intentionally difficult. The FTC claimed that Amazon used deceptive user interface designs, known as dark patterns, to trick consumers into automatically enrolling and renewing prime subscriptions. And you might have experienced something like this yourself at some point in time. I know I have. You're trying to buy something on Amazon and as you're going through the actual checkout process, the system asks you whether you want free shipping on the item. You, of course do, and within just a few clicks, you don't even realize it, but suddenly you're a member of Amazon Prime. Here's in fact, how the complaint from the FTC broke down. What was happening? Quote, in some cases, the lawsuit contends, the button presented to consumers to complete their transaction did not clearly state that by choosing that option, they were also agreeing to join prime for a recurring subscription. And then, of course, on the other side, when you went to actually go cancel the membership later after you found the charge on your credit card statement, it was basically a labyrinth process, according to the case that the government brought forth against them. Quote, internal Amazon documents referenced by the FTC described the process as Iliad, likening it to the lengthy siege in the Greek epic. And noted employees referred to subscription tactics as a bit of a shady world and an unspoken cancer. Consumers who attempted to cancel prime were faced with multiple steps to actually accomplish the task of canceling. Consumers had to first locate the cancellation flow, and once there, they were redirected to multiple pages that presented several offers to continue the subscription at a discounted price, to simply turn off the auto renew feature, or to decide not to cancel only after clicking through these Pages, could consumers finally cancel the service? And personally, I have gone through the process once of canceling Amazon prime and in this description, they're making it seem harder than it was. I mean, it is a few pages, but you just click no, no, no. Do you want to cancel? Yes. So I mean, it's not that hard. Regardless, the FTC also mentioned that the highest level executives were aware of the problem, but that, quote, company executives failed to alleviate the complicated tech issues until the FTC began its investigation. In addition, the FTC claims that Amazon tried to procrastinate in cooperating with this probe. And so this investigation, it culminated in a lawsuit that was filed by the ofTC against Amazon two years ago. And just earlier this month it was settled by the lawyers, but for $2.5 billion as a part of that settlement, Amazon did not admit to any wrongdoing. But here's how that $2.5 billion broke down. Amazon will pay a cool $1 billion in civil penalties, which by the way is the largest in FTC history. And then also $1.5 billion will be given back to customers in the form of refunds. Now, eligible customers, the ones who actually qualify, are as follows. Quote Anyone who signed up for Amazon prime or unsuccessfully attempted to cancel their prime subscription in the United States between June 20 and June 23 of 2025 is eligible for a share of the settlement, meaning that if you signed up for Amazon prime within the past six years and or you try to cancel your prime membership within the past six years, you qualify for this refund. Now, in terms of getting your money and filing your claim, for some people, the money will just automatically be sent to their account. Here's who qualifies for the automatic payments that are about to go out. Quote Customers who used no more than three prime benefits within a year of enrollment and signed up for Amazon prime through a quote, unquote challenged enrollment flow, will receive an automated refund from Amazon. And by challenged enrollment flow, the FTC actually broke down what that meant. And it means anybody who enrolled into Amazon Prime Services through the Universal prime page, through the Shipping Options select page through through Prime Video and or through Amazon's single page checkout, which seems like to cover all the possible options. So pretty much anyone who signed up to Amazon prime, as long as they didn't use at least three prime benefits within the first year, they qualify for these automatic payments, which in theory should be hitting their accounts within the next 90 days. However, for the other group of people, the people who don't automatically qualify including those who tried to cancel their prime membership in the past six years. But for some reason we're not able to. There's actually going to be a separate webpage for them so that they can process their claims separately. Although I will mention right now that page is not yet public. When it does go public, I'll actually update the description box below this video with the link to that page. And so you can either check back on this video within the next week or two, or I'm sure you can just Google it yourself. I'm sure it'll be up and then you can find out the actual process to make your claim. However, if you think you're going to be retiring on the money you receive, you're probably not going to be retiring. Here is the maximum that each customer is going to be getting paid back through this settlement process. Quote, customers will be paid back for up to the total amount of the membership fees they paid, but no more than $51. A cool 51 bucks. Now, of course, there's maybe tens of millions of people who qualify. And so you might be worried about Amazon, but you shouldn't be, because as a corporation, even though they're having to pay this massive fine, the biggest in ftc history, well, $2.5 billion is obviously huge, but last year Amazon's gross profit was $311 billion. And so I'm sure they'll be able to absorb this fine without much difficulty, even just looking at their prime business exclusively. Well, here's what you find. Quote, Amazon has more than 200 million prime members in 25 countries. And, and the company earned $21.59 billion in revenue from subscription fees in 2024. And so even though this fine is big, I'm sure Amazon will be just fine. Also, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to Amazon Corporation to get their comment on the settlement. And one of their representatives got back to us via email, basically saying that everything they did was buy the book and they followed the law. Quote, the bottom line is that neither Amazon nor the individual defendants did anything wrong. We remain confident that the facts will show these executives acted properly and we always put the customers first. And so there you have it. If you'd like to read the entire FTC investigation, the report that was filed alongside the complaint, I will put it down in the description box below. You can click on that link. It'll take you to the full investigation from the ftc. Also, come back, I don't know, in a week or two when that actual website for the for the claimants to make their claims. When that goes live, I'll throw a link to that down in the description box below as well. And also, I mean, if you appreciate content like this, I would appreciate it if you smash that like button so this video can reach ever more people and smash the subscribe button as well. So that way, anytime I put out a new piece of content, a new video, a new piece of news, you will be informed by the YouTube algorithm and you'll be like, wow. Oh, Roman, put out a new piece of content. Let me click on it. Let me see what he's up to and let me see what the news is today. So thank you so much for subscribing and liking the video. And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. Stay informed and most importantly, stay free.