Amazon tricked millions into joining Prime and made it impossible to cancel, lawsuit alleges

Amazon

Amazon is facing serious allegations in the U.S. after a new lawsuit claimed the company tricked millions of customers into signing up for its Prime membership and then made it nearly impossible to cancel.

According to the lawsuit, Amazon designed its website and app to push people toward Prime subscriptions. While the “Join Prime” button is prominently displayed, the option to decline or cancel is hidden in a confusing maze of menus. Once users are enrolled, getting out is reportedly a frustrating, time-consuming process.

Internal Amazon documents reveal that employees themselves referred to the Prime signup problem as an “unspoken cancer.” Workers reportedly raised concerns about the confusing signup and cancellation flows, warning that it was misleading to customers. But the lawsuit claims the company ignored these warnings, allegedly because fixing the process might reduce subscriptions and profits.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has now stepped in, filing the case to determine whether Amazon used deceptive “dark patterns” to push users into Prime memberships. Dark patterns are design tricks that nudge people into decisions they might not make otherwise.

Amazon, however, has denied the allegations. The company says the terms of Prime are clear, and both signup and cancellation steps are straightforward. Any confusion, Amazon argues, is rare and unintentional.

For customers, the lawsuit raises an important question: how many people have been enrolled in Prime without fully realizing it? And for the tech industry, it could set a precedent on how transparent companies need to be when offering subscriptions.

The trial is ongoing in Seattle, and the outcome could affect not just Amazon but other online platforms that use similar signup designs. If the court rules against Amazon, the company may need to simplify its Prime signup process, make cancellations easier, and potentially pay penalties.

In the meantime, users who have struggled to cancel Prime or felt tricked into joining aren’t alone — this lawsuit highlights a growing concern over subscription practices in the digital age.