The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued the e-commerce giant Amazon, accusing the company of “knowingly” deceiving millions of customers into subscribing to its Prime membership without their consent, making it difficult to cancel their subscription.

The regulator filed a complaint in the federal court in the US city of Seattle, saying that Amazon, for years, “knowingly duped millions of consumers” using “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs” into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.

The FTC has been investigating Amazon Prime’s sign-up and cancellation processes since 2021. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement that Amazon tricked people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, and its cancellation process was not to enable subscribers to cancel but to stop them. 

She added that the FTC would continue to protect Americans from these “manipulative” tactics and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets that harm consumers and law-abiding businesses.

The complaint stated that the online checkout process on Amazon spammed customers with numerous opportunities to subscribe to Amazon Prime at $14.99/month. In many cases, it added that the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime was more difficult for consumers to locate.