The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against Amazon over allegations that it has tricked millions of consumers into signing up for its Prime subscription service with deceptive interface designs.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, is also looking at Amazon’s alleged practice of trying to keep users subscribed, even though they wanted to cancel their memberships.
“Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions,” the FTC complaint said.
The FTC described the unsubscribing process as “labyrinthine,” saying it was very easy to sign up for Prime but extremely challenging to cancel it, alleging this is to distract or deter consumers from following through with their intentions.
The claims come after a months-long investigation into the practices of Amazon Prime, which even involved the testimony of founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy.
Amazon called the claims “false on the facts and the law” in a statement released on Wednesday. The company also said it was not aware that the complaint was going to be filed.
“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 company said in the statement. “While the absence of that normal course engagement is extremely disappointing, we look forward to proving our case in court.”
Still, the complaint says that Amazon allegedly maintained a multi-step cancellation process, which it internally called the “Iliad Flow,” named after “Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War,” the FTC complaint said.
The only means of cancellation through the Iliad process was by contacting customer service, the FTC alleged. While canceling the membership meant clicking through nearly 14 different pages, the FTC highlighted that subscribing required two.
This is not the company’s first encounter with the FTC, as last month, it agreed to pay more than $30 million in a settlement regarding privacy with its Ring and Alexa products.
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