CNN —The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on Wednesday, alleging that the e-commerce giant has tricked millions of consumers into signing up for its Prime subscription service through deceptive user interface designs.
“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 complaint said.
With Prime, Amazon is able to generate billions in revenue from subscriptions and incentivize customers to spend more time and money on its platforms.
According to Wednesday’s complaint, Amazon took some steps in April, in response to FTC pressure, to simplify users’ ability to cancel their Prime subscriptions but before then had denied customers the ability to easily cancel their Prime subscriptions online.
Other than contacting customer service, Amazon offered no alternative to consumers wishing to cancel apart from going through the Iliad process, the FTC said.
Persons:
Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Amazon, ”, “, —, Lina Khan
Organizations:
CNN, Federal Trade Commission, Amazon, Court, Western, of, FTC
Locations:
of Washington