The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Amazon for allegedly using dark patterns to trick millions of users into enrolling in its Prime program and trapping them by making it as difficult as possible to cancel the automatically-renewing subscriptions.
“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement Wednesday. “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike.
The commission also alleges that Amazon required customers to go through multiple unnecessary steps before successfully unsubscribing from the program.
