A jury will examine if Amazon has encouraged customers to join Prime – and made it difficult to leave

The Federal Trade Commission continued Amazon in the American district court of Seattle two years ago and allegedly allegedly more than a decade of legal violations, including the restaurant online shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to ensure that people know what they are billed online.

The jury selection began on Monday, with declarations of opening to follow.

Prime provides subscribers to benefits that include faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods for fees of $ 139 per year, or $ 14.99 per month.

It is a key – and growing – business of Amazon, with more than 200 million members. In its latest quarterly report, the company in July declared more than $ 12 billion in net income for subscription services, which represents an increase of 12% compared to the same period last year. This figure includes annual and monthly costs associated with Prime memberships, as well as other subscription services such as its music and electronic books platforms.

The company said that it clearly explains the terms of premium before invoicing customers and that it offers simple means to cancel membership, including by phone, online and online chat.

“The frustrations and occasional errors of customers are inevitable – in particular for a program as popular as Amazon Prime,” said Amazon in a test file tabled last week. “The evidence that a small percentage of customers does not include registration or cancellation does not prove that Amazon violated the law.”

But the FTC said that Amazon had deliberately made it difficult for customers to buy an article without subscribing to bonus. In some cases, consumers have received a button to finish their transactions – which did not clearly declare that this would also register them at a bonus, said the agency.

“Amazon had long known that millions of its customers had trouble with the registration and cancellation of its subscription service,” said the FTC in its test file. “Millions of consumers have accidentally signed up for premium without knowledge or consent, but Amazon refused to solve this known problem, described internally by employees as” tacit cancer “because clarity adjustments would cause drop in subscribers.”

Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon’s leadership has slowed down or rejected the changes that have facilitated cancellation, depending on the complaint.

Internally, Amazon called the “Iliad” process, a reference to the ancient Greek poem in the long seat of Troy during the Trojan War. The process obliges the customer to assert on three pages his desire to cancel membership.

US District Judge John Chun, appointed by former president Joe Biden, made a prescription last week claiming that the online restoring customer confidence law applies to bonus. He also limited some of the legal defenses that Amazon could offer to the trial and reassured himself with the FTC on his assertion that Amazon violated the law by collecting customer billing information before disclosing the premium conditions.

But Chun said that several other problems remained for the jury to decide, especially if Amazon’s disclosure on the material terms of the main membership are “clear and visible” and if the “illiad” cancellation method is “simple”, as required.

Chun also ruled that two Amazon leaders appointed individual defendants – Neil Lindsay and Jamil Ghani – were so intertwined with the main program that they will be personally responsible if the jury is associated with the FTC. A third, Russell Grandinetti, could also be potentially confronted with personal responsibility if the jury decides.

Amazon said a statement on Monday: “The main thing is that neither Amazon nor the individual defendants did anything wrong – we remain confident that the facts show that these executives have acted properly and we always put customers first.”

The FTC, which refused to comment on Monday, began to examine the main subscription practices of Amazon in 2021 during the first Trump administration, but the trial was filed in 2023 under the former president of the FTC, Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who had been appointed by Biden.

The agency has deposited the case of the months before submitting an antitrust trial against the retail and technology company, accusing it of having monopolistic control in the online markets.

In July, Chun urged Amazon for retaining 70,000 FTC documents, including unduly marked documents as containing internal legal advice, claiming that driving was “in bad faith equivalent”.

Meanwhile, like other technological companies, Amazon tried to forge more friendly links with President Donald Trump, who criticized the company several times during his first mandate.

In December, Amazon made a donation of $ 1 million to the inauguration fund of Trump. The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, with other technology leaders, was also invited to the inauguration.

Earlier this year, Amazon’s first video service began broadcasting “The Apprentice”, the longtime television show that strengthened Trump’s profile before running for the presidency. The company also works on a documentary that offers an “unprecedented look behind the scenes” in the life of the first lady Melania Trump.

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