A landmark lawsuit has just been settled, and you could share in the settlement if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber. A recent civil regulatory action has just been settled, highlighting the growing importance of holding this major corporation accountable for unethical user interfaces and automated enrollment processes, which have led to Amazon Prime consumers being misled into paying for services that they did not intend to purchase, on top of making it difficult to cancel their subscription service.
Landmark civil regulatory action reached
Generally speaking, class action lawsuits come to mind when it comes to holding large companies and corporations accountable for their actions that affect a large number of their consumers and clients. Class action lawsuits put plaintiffs in a better position than if they pursued legal action alone, as they draw upon collective group power by combining resources and evidence in order to achieve legal justice against these entities, which often have access to better legal resources.
However, another type of lawsuit, which is driven by group-based action, is civil regulatory actions. This type of motion is put forward by government or regulatory agencies, as opposed to being put forward by consumers, as it is in a class action lawsuit. These types of litigation are initiated on behalf of the public in order to ensure that entities are complying with regulatory standards and laws.
Broadly speaking, the goal of a class action lawsuit is to compensate consumers for losses that may have been incurred from unlawful practice by an entity, whereas civil regulatory actions are filed to investigate whether or not an entity is actually upholding the law, and may involve compensation for consumers, but may also involve monetary penalties paid to governing bodies.
Amazon Prime members share in a $1.5 billion settlement
Recently, a settlement was reached pertaining to a civil regulatory action case between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Amazon.com, Inc., along with executives Senior Vice President Neil Lindsay and Vice President Jamil Ghani, for violating consumer protection laws, including the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA). Amazon settled for $1.5 billion over allegations that the company enrolled consumers into its Amazon Prime subscription service without consumer consent, while also knowingly making it complex for consumers to cancel these subscriptions, increasing tensions between the company and consumers.
“…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. Today, we are putting billions of dollars back into Americans’ pockets, and making sure Amazon never does this again…” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson.
As part of the settlement, Amazon will face the following civil penalties:
- $1 billion civil penalty.
- $1.5 billion reserved for consumer redress, providing full relief for the estimated 35 million consumers.
How to receive your share of the Amazon Prime settlement
As part of the consumer redress, eligible Amazon Prime users who were impacted by the unlawful practices of Amazon will receive a $51 refund. Eligible plaintiffs include those who signed up for Amazon Prime with “questionable flows” between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, as well as those who unsuccessfully attempted to unsubscribe from the service during the same period. Eligible individuals will either be issued an automatic refund or will be contacted individually to receive their refund.
Payment dates are still to be announced for the litigation, as the settlement is still waiting on final approval from the courts. Other recent litigations, which have seen consumers receive refunds for costs incurred from unlawful practice, include litigations pertaining to data breaches. With the world more digitally connected than ever, these lawsuits are holding entities accountable for not taking all preventive measures possible to prevent unauthorized party access to sensitive client information.
Disclaimer: You should not submit false or inflated claims under penalty of perjury, as class‑action claim forms historically required declarations signed “under penalty of perjury” to ensure authenticity. Submitting a fraudulent claim not only carries legal exposure—including potential civil and criminal sanctions—but also harms other eligible class members by diluting the available settlement pool.
