The Amazon smile logo can be seen on the front of the e-commerce giant's new five-story robotic fulfillment center at 2519 Bellevue Ave. in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

Some Amazon customers who are eligible to receive a portion of the company's $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission have begun receiving payments.

In the first of two waves of payouts, Amazon began issuing automatic payments to some customers starting Nov. 12, according to the FTC.

It comes after Amazon in September agreed to settle with the FTC in an antitrust lawsuit filed in 2023. The suit alleged Amazon coerced millions of consumers into enrolling in Prime subscriptions, then made those agreements extremely difficult to cancel.

Amazon denied wrongdoing and said it has "always followed the law."

"We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world," the statement added. "We will continue to do so, and look forward to what we’ll deliver for Prime members in the coming years."

Who is eligible for money in Amazon settlement?

According to a court order in the case, Amazon customers are only eligible for a settlement payment if they meet both of the following criteria:

  • Sign up date: Customers must have signed up for Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025.
  • Attempt to cancel: Customers are only eligible for payment if they unsuccessfully tried to cancel their Prime subscription, or if they signed up for Prime through what the documents call a "challenged enrollment flow."

The "challenged" flow means any subscription started through certain pages on Amazon's website, including the "Universal Prime Decision Page, the Shipping Option Select Page, Prime Video enrollment flow, or the Single Page Checkout," per the court order.

Do you need to file a claim in Amazon settlement?

There are two phases of payments in the Amazon settlement.

  • Automatic payments: The first payments will be distributed through an automatic payout, meaning customers don't have to submit a claim.

Who's eligible: Only Amazon customers who used their Prime benefits three or fewer times over any 12-month period of enrollment will receive an automatic payment.

  • Filing claims: Under the second wave, customers will have to submit a claim to receive payment.

Who's eligible: Only Amazon customers who used their Prime benefits 10 or fewer times over any 12-month period of enrollment will receive a payment in this phase.

When will Amazon send out settlement payments?

Automatic payments in the first wave of payouts are available through Venmo or PayPal. If a customer does not accept their automatic payment through PayPal or Venmo within 15 days, Amazon will mail them a check to the shipping address listed on their Prime subscription, per the FTC.

Here's the timeline of payments, per Amazon and the FTC:

  • Customers who qualify for the automatic payments will receive them between Nov. 12 and Dec. 24.
  • In the second wave, a third-party claims administrator will send out information on how to make claims by Jan. 23.
  • Eligible claimants have until July 23, 2026, to submit the forms.

Eligible customers can only get up to $51 from settlement

Customers can get a maximum of $51 from the settlement, according to the court order.

The amount of money each customer gets from the settlement is based on the total amount of Amazon Prime membership fees paid during the duration of their subscription.

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Payments in $2.5B Amazon settlement have started going out. When you could get yours.

Reporting by Melina Khan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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