Amazon is being sued for ‘tricking’ people into getting Prime membership

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint against Amazon accusing that the e-commerce giant “knowingly” deceived millions of customers into enrolling them to Prime membership without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscription.

The antitrust agency said in its complaint that the FTC used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs”, known as “dark patterns”, to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.

“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.