Amazon Prime $1.5 billion settlement: Members to start receiving payments ahead of holidays

Up to 35 million Amazon Prime members may receive payments from a $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

This settlement resolves allegations that the company misled millions of consumers into unwanted subscriptions and created unreasonable obstacles to prevent cancellation, reported MLive , SILive.com’s sister site.

Under the agreement, $1.5 billion will go toward consumer payments, while $1 billion represents a civil penalty that the FTC describes as historic . The company must also stop the enrollment and cancellation practices the FTC found unlawful.

“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,” said FT