Amazon has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which accused the e-commerce giant of misleading millions of consumers into signing up for its Prime membership service. The deal, announced Thursday, combines $1 billion in fines with $1.5 billion in reimbursements to affected subscribers.
Roughly 35 million Prime members are eligible for payments. According to court filings, customers who enrolled in Prime between June 2019 and June 2025 through certain promotional offers, but rarely used its benefits, will automatically receive $51. Others may claim refunds if they attempted to cancel but were unsuccessful.
The case centered on practices the FTC described as confusing and manipulative, particularly around free-trial offers and the difficulty of canceling. The agency alleged that Amazon executives resisted internal proposals to simplify enrollment and cancellation, calling the tactics “an unspoken cancer” in internal discussions.
Although Amazon denies wrongdoing, the company has agreed to introduce clearer disclosures, including a visible option to decline Prime during checkout and a simplified cancellation process. An independent monitor will oversee compliance.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson hailed the settlement as the agency’s second-largest consumer payout on record, calling it “a monumental win for Americans tired of subscriptions that are nearly impossible to cancel.” Former FTC chair Lina Khan described the $2.5 billion payout as “a drop in the bucket” compared to Amazon’s scale.
Prime, launched in 2005 at $79 per year and now priced at $139 annually, remains central to Amazon’s business. Subscription revenue reached $23.9 billion in the first half of 2025 alone. Analysts say the settlement is unlikely to weaken Prime’s dominance, with the service already entrenched in most U.S. households.
