Photographer: Thorsten Wagner/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
The Federal Commerce Fee on Wednesday sued Amazon, alleging the nation’s dominant on-line retailer deliberately duped thousands and thousands of shoppers into signing up for its mainstay Prime program and “sabotaged” their makes an attempt to cancel.
The company claims Amazon violated the FTC Act and the Restore On-line Customers’ Confidence Act by utilizing so-called darkish patterns, or misleading design ways meant to steer customers towards a selected alternative, to push shoppers to enroll in Prime with out their consent.
“Amazon tricked and trapped folks into recurring subscriptions with out their consent, not solely irritating customers but additionally costing them important cash,” FTC Chair Lina Khan mentioned in a press release.
The FTC had been investigating sign-up and cancellation processes for Amazon’s Prime program since March 2021. Tensions flared between Amazon and the FTC when the company sought to have CEO Andy Jassy and founder Jeff Bezos testify on the corporate’s Prime practices. Amazon argued the request could be unduly and burdensome, which the FTC rejected.
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