Left: an example of what the FTC calls “misleading language and manipulative designs” that leads consumers to enroll in Amazon Prime without their consent (via federal court filing). Right: An Amazon Prime delivery vehicle is seen in downtown Pittsburgh on March 18, 2020 (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File).
The federal agency that protects U.S. consumers from predatory sales practices has accused Amazon of engaging in “manipulative” and “coercive” tactics in order to get unwitting buyers to commit to its Prime membership program.
In a heavily-redacted 87-page complaint filed Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission said that the online retail giant had undertaken a yearslong campaign to trick online shoppers into paying for Prime memberships that automatically renew without their informed consent. An Amazon Prime membership costs $139 per year, or $14.99 per month. Benefits include free two-day shipping, access to the platform’s music and entertainment streaming options, and the ability to buy discounted items on “Amazon Prime Day.”
“For years, Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. has knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service,” the complaint says. “Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.”
“Dark patterns,” as the complaint explains, are “manipulative design elements that trick users into making decisions they would not otherwise have made.”
Those elements, in this case, included “Forced Action,” or requiring a buyer to choose whether to enroll in Prime before completing a purchase, and “Interface Interference,” or a design element that emphasizes certain information — such as signing up for Prime — over other information, such as declining a Prime membership.
Amazon also allegedly utilized a “dark pattern” technique called “Obstruction,” which is “also known as the ‘roach motel’ technique.” This, the FTC says, is a “design element that involves intentionally complicating a process through unnecessary steps to dissuade consumers from an action,” such as making the option to decline Prime enrollment difficult to find.
If a customer did want to end their Prime membership, they would be forced to embark on a multi-step journey that the company itself literally linked to an epic hero’s journey.
“Fittingly, Amazon named that process ‘Iliad,’ which refers to Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War,” the complaint says. “Amazon designed the Iliad cancellation process (‘Iliad Flow’) to be labyrinthine, and Amazon and its leadership […] slowed or rejected user experience changes that would have made Iliad simpler for consumers because those changes adversely affected Amazon’s bottom line.”
As the FTC describes it, consumers would have to navigate through three pages, each of which contained several options — including many offers to keep the membership — before finally being able to immediately cancel the membership.
“To complete the Iliad Flow and cancel a Prime membership, the consumer needed to click a minimum of six times from Amazon.com,” the complaint says. For mobile users, it allegedly took an “eight-page, eight-click minimum process” to cancel a Prime membership.
“The primary purpose of the Prime cancellation process was not to enable subscribers to cancel, but rather to thwart them,” the FTC alleges.
The FTC says that Amazon has only changed the unsubscribe process recently, after the FTC started investigating.
“Under significant pressure from the Commission — and aware that its practices are legally indefensible — Amazon substantially revamped its Prime cancellation process for at least some subscribers shortly before the filing of this Complaint.”
Amazon denies the FTC’s allegations in full.
“The FTC’s claims are false on the facts and the law,” a spokesperson for Amazon said in a statement. “The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership. As with all our products and services, we continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience, and we look forward to the facts becoming clear as this case plays out.”
In addition to denying its own malfeasance, Amazon says that the FTC actually engaged in some sketchy practices of its own.
“We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us, in the midst of our discussions with FTC staff members to ensure they understand the facts, context, and legal issues, and before we were able to have a dialog with the Commissioners themselves before they filed a lawsuit,” the Amazon statement says. “While the absence of that normal course engagement is extremely disappointing, we look forward to proving our case in court.”
The lawsuit is far from the first time the company has faced accusations of duping, exploiting, or endangering shoppers. Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, is no stranger to controversy, and the company itself has been accused of racism and wage inequality.
Read the FTC’s complaint, below.
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