You can now claim without a claim ID by simply filling in your personal information.

There is now an official compensation website, but you previously needed to receive a claim ID by email before you could submit the form. Check the email account associated with your Amazon account, especially your spam folder.

Earlier news

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Amazon, along with two of its executives, reached a historic agreement with a $2.5 billion settlement resolving allegations against the company. The complaint alleged that Amazon enrolled millions of consumers into Prime without their consent and deliberately made cancellation extremely difficult.

Under the settlement, Amazon will be required to:

  • Pay a $1 billion civil penalty.
  • Refund $1.5 billion to consumers affected by its deceptive Prime enrollment practices.
  • Stop its unlawful Prime enrollment and cancellation practices.

The FTC alleges that Amazon and several executives knowingly misled millions of consumers into signing up for Prime, in violation of the law. According to the complaint, Amazon designed confusing and deceptive user interfaces that caused consumers to enroll in Prime without realizing it.

Even worse, Amazon allegedly put in place a complicated and burdensome cancellation process for consumers trying to cancel Prime, with the goal of discouraging them from doing so. Internal Amazon discussions cited in court filings show that company executives and employees were aware of these issues. Some even described the subscription tactics as “a little shady,” and called steering users into involuntary subscriptions “a dark pattern everyone knows about.”

This massive settlement has two main components:

  • $1 billion civil penalty: This is the largest penalty the FTC has ever imposed in a case involving violations of its rules.
  • $1.5 billion in consumer refunds: This will fully compensate about 35 million affected consumers. It is the second-largest refund amount the FTC has ever obtained.

In addition to the monetary relief, the settlement also requires Amazon to:

Stop the illegal conduct and make substantial changes to its Prime signup and cancellation processes.

  • Provide a clear and prominent “Decline Prime” button during signup (instead of ambiguous options like “No, I don’t want free shipping”).
  • Clearly disclose all key Prime terms, including fees, billing dates and frequency, whether the membership auto-renews, and how to cancel.
  • Offer an easy cancellation method. The cancellation process must be simple, free, and not time-consuming, and should be available through the same method consumers used to sign up.
  • Hire an independent third-party monitor to ensure the refund distribution process is compliant.

The FTC Commission has already voted 3-0 to approve the settlement, and it has been submitted to the court for final approval. Once signed by the judge, the agreement will become legally binding.

We will update this post promptly as more details about compensation become available.