Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion for Misleading Prime Users as Settlement: Know if You’re Eligible

Amazon has gotten into trouble for sneaky prime sign-ups and making it hard to cancel the memberships. For years this continued until now. The court caught the act, fined Amazon and also asked to repay the amount. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed the case (in September 2023) against the company and Amazon agreed to settle it (in September 2025) with $2.5 billion. But, here’s the thing; several users are eligible to get this reimbursement and they don’t know it yet. And many also wonder where to apply to get the repayment. For all that, learn more.

How the $2.5 Billion Will Be Used

• $1 billion will be fine to the FTC.
• 1.5 billion will be given to the affected users.

Note: Amazon never agreed to the wrong doing. According to Amazon, it’s just settling the case with a payment.

Why Amazon Got Sued

• The FTC openly accused Amazon of “duping” (meaning, misleading) Amazon users to sign up.
• And wantedly made the cancellation process tough and called its website design “dark patterns.”

Who Can Get the Money?

The estimation shows that about 35 million (3.5 crore) Amazon Prime customers in the U.S. can get the reimbursement. Here’s how to check if you’re eligible.

• If you have signed up for Prime between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025.
• If you were automatically enrolled into the membership, like after a free trial or while checkout for “same-day delivery.”
• And if you have faced difficulties when you tried cancelling your subscription.

Here are the affected sign-up pages listed as:

• Shipping Option Select Page
• Prime Video Enrollment Flow
• Single Page Checkout

How Much Will You Get?

An amount of t $51 will be given to each affected customer as per the court documents. 

When and How Will You Get It?

The payment will be done by December 24, 2025 and the process is automatic:

• You’ll get a refund, if you used your Prime three times or less in any 12-month period.
• This is a cash compensation, no Amazon credits or tacy gift cards.
• This reimbursement is handled by a third-party claims administrator, not Amazon directly.

In case you didn’t receive this automatic payment:

• The claims administrator will contact you by January 23, 2026.
• Later you’ll have to submit a claim form till July 23, 2026.

What Amazon Must Do Now?

The court made it clear to Amazon to:

• Add a clear button to decline Prime during the checkout.
• Make the Prime Membership cancellation easy.
• And clearly list the terms of subscription before one enrolls.
• And always allow an independent supervisor to check on Amazon. 

Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion for Tricking Prime Membership

This is the largest civil penalty for an FTC rule violation ever, of over $2.5 billion. However, Amazon didn’t admit to any wrongdoing. Learn more.

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