The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alongside 17 state attorneys general, has filed a significant lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the e-commerce giant of illegally enrolling millions of consumers into its Amazon Prime subscription service without their consent. The complaint alleges that the company used manipulative and coercive user interface designs, commonly known as “dark patterns,” to trick consumers into signing up for the recurring subscription.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the lawsuit claims Amazon’s enrollment tactics were deceptive, automatically signing up customers during the checkout process using pre-selected checkboxes and ambiguous language. The FTC asserts that this design led consumers to unknowingly commit to the paid service.
Furthermore, the complaint details how Amazon allegedly thwarted users who attempted to cancel their Prime subscriptions through a deliberately convoluted process. According to the lawsuit, Amazon leadership internally codenamed this cancellation labyrinth the “Iliad Flow,” a reference to Homer’s epic poem about the long, arduous Trojan War. This multi-step process was designed to be confusing and frustrating, requiring users to navigate through several pages and ignore multiple confusing offers before they could successfully terminate their subscription.
FTC Chair Lina Khan stated, “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money.” The lawsuit seeks monetary penalties and a permanent injunction to prevent Amazon from continuing these alleged deceptive practices. This legal action represents one of the most significant challenges to the use of dark patterns in digital design and a major escalation in regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech’s subscription models.
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