How To Claim You Share Of Amazon's $2.5B Prime Settlement In CA

After a historic settlement agreement, Amazon has begun refunding millions of dollars to some Prime customers. Are you owed money?

Amazon was accused of enrolling millions of people in Prime subscriptions without their consent over several years. The company also "knowingly" made it difficult for them to cancel those subscriptions, officials said.

In September, the Federal Trade Commission announced a "historic" order with the e-commerce giant as well as Senior Vice President Neil Lindsay and Vice President Jamil Ghani.

The company will now have to pay a $1 billion civil penalty and give back $1.5 billion to customers who were "harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices."

Those payments began rolling out on Nov. 12, according to the FTC.

Refunds are coming in two stages — an automatic refund process for eligible Prime customers and a claims process for eligible Prime customers who didn’t get an automatic refund, the FTC said.

Eligible customers are expected to receive a refund of $51.

Who Is Eligible?

Customers who were enrolled in Prime without permission during the "challenged enrollment flow" between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, are eligible, according to the FTC.

In addition, Amazon customers who used their Prime benefits three times or fewer during any 12-month enrollment period will automatically qualify for a payout. In this case, you do not need to file a claim.

How To Get Paid

Those who are eligible for an automatic refund will get an email between Nov. 12 and Dec. 24. Recipients can get their refunds via PayPal or Venmo. The digital refund must be accepted within 15 days.

For those who want a check instead, ignore the email from Amazon. A check will be mailed to your default shipping address listed on your subscription.

For Those Who Are Eligible But Didn't Get Refund

The FTC says this group doesn't need to take any action yet. In 2026, the company is expected to begin its claims process for eligible Prime customers who didn’t get an automatic refund between November and December 2025.

For more information, check this link.

Going forward, the company was ordered to halt unlawful enrollment and cancellation practices for its Prime service, under which customers must pay monthly to access "free shipping" and other perks.

FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson says Americans are tired of deceptive subscriptions that feel impossible to cancel.

"The evidence showed that Amazon used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription," Ferguson wrote in a release. Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again. The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to fighting back when companies try to cheat ordinary Americans out of their hard-earned pay."

What's more, the settlement will require Jeff Bezos' Amazon to follow these orders, according to the FTC:

• Include "a clear and conspicuous button for customers to decline Prime. Amazon can no longer have a button that says, 'No, I don’t want Free Shipping.'"
• Include "a clear and conspicuous" disclosure "about all material terms of Prime during the Prime enrollment process, such as the cost, the date and frequency of charges to consumers, whether the subscription auto-renews, and cancellation procedures."
• Create "an easy way for consumers to cancel Prime, using the same method that consumers used to sign up. The process cannot be difficult, costly, or time-consuming and must be available using the same method that consumers used to sign up."
• Pay "for an independent, third-party supervisor to monitor Amazon’s compliance with the consumer redress distribution process."

According to the court order, payments will be issued in two phases.

Patch has reached out to Amazon.com, Inc. for comment.