Amazon To Refund $1.5 Billion To Customers — Are You Eligible?

As part of an historic settlement, Amazon has been ordered to refund millions of dollars to some Prime customers and pay a billion more in civil penalties. Are you owed money?

For years, Amazon has reportedly enrolled millions of people in Prime subscriptions without their consent. The company also "knowingly" made it difficult for them to cancel those subscriptions, officials said.

The Federal Trade Commission announced last week that is secured 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."

The latter sum is the second-highest restitution ever pursued by the FTC.

The company must also 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.

Who is eligible?

Customers who were enrolled in Prime without permission between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, are eligible for just $51 in compensation, 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. These individuals do not need to file a claim.

How to get paid

Amazon says some payments will be issued automatically, while others will require customers to submit a claim — depending on their history with Prime, according to Kitsap Sun and other reports.

• First wave: Automatic payments will be distributed within the next 90 days. It’s still unclear how these payouts will be delivered.
• Second wave: Customers who used Prime fewer than 10 times in any 12-month period must submit a claim form. Amazon is required to send these forms within 30 days after the automatic payouts are completed, and eligible customers will have 180 days to file.