Uncle Sam names three Amazon execs as Prime suspects in subscription ripoff case
(2023/09/21)
- Reference: 1695257170
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/09/21/ftc_amazon_prime_amended_complaint/
- Source link:
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has named three senior Amazon.com staffers accused of approving tactics designed to confuse people into signing up for the online souk's Prime loyalty scheme, then making it hard for them to unsubscribe.
Neil Lindsay, former head of the Prime team; current boss Russell Grandinetti; and Prime VP Jamil Ghani were all named in an amended complaint in an [1]ongoing court case brought by the FTC against Amazon that alleges the e-tail giant knowingly duped customers into signing up for Prime delivery service and deliberately made it hard for them to cancel a subscription.
The amended filing includes excerpts from an internal Amazon newsletter that states: "The issue of accidental Prime-sign ups is well documented." Prosecutors go on to allege that Amazon execs not only understood netizens were being signed up for Prime, but also created a "labyrinthine" cancellation process that it named "Iliad" – a name taken from an epic poem by Homer.
[2]
Despite internal warnings about the obtuse process, the Amazon execs declined to change the system for fear of causing a "shock" to the business plan.
[3]
[4]
As early as 2016, staff warned that the Prime sign-up process was "designed to mislead or trick users to make them do something they don't want to do, like signing up for a recurring bill."
The complaint, filed in a federal district court in western Washington state, claims Amazon tried to "delay and hinder the FTC's investigation of these issues, including attempting to apply legal privilege to documents that were not privileged and concealing the existence of other relevant, damaging documents."
[5]Amazon Prime too easy to join, too hard to quit, says FTC lawsuit
[6]Amazon to settle Euro antitrust probes by Christmas
[7]FTC approves $61.7m settlement with Amazon for pocketing driver tips
[8]A federal watchdog to police Big Tech? Yeah, that'll do the trick, senators...
The case revolves around the "dark patterns" Amazon is said to have used to lure people into signing up for Prime – underhand webpage and app layout tricks designed to get people to sign up and pay for Prime and then making it hard to cancel the payments. Court [9]documents [PDF] note that Neil Lindsay is now a key member of Amazon's management team advising on corporate strategy.
You're too dumb to use click-to-cancel, Big Biz says with straight face [10]READ MORE
According to the complaint against the tech giant, Amazon customer service representatives were instructed to put people into the epically unpleasant Iliad process to cancel subscriptions – despite being able to resolve such inquiries quickly. The filing claims Lindsay and others knowingly made the cancellation process more complicated than it needed to be to keep people paying, and in some cases even enrolled people who were not active Amazon buyers.
"Prime subscription fees account for $25 billion of Amazon's annual revenue. Approximately 70 percent of Amazon's revenue comes from American consumers," the complaint claims.
[11]
Companies making it easy to sign up for services and then making it very hard to cancel them is nothing new, but the FTC's complaint is aiming to fix the issue for Amazon and others.
The online souk had no comment at time of publication. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/21/amazon_prime_ftc_lawsuit/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/21/amazon_prime_ftc_lawsuit/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/17/amazon_eu_antitrust/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/11/ftc_amazon_flex/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/27/us_lawmakers_propose_new_commission/
[9] https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023-09-20-067-AmendedComplaint%28redacted%29.pdf
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Neil Lindsay, former head of the Prime team; current boss Russell Grandinetti; and Prime VP Jamil Ghani were all named in an amended complaint in an [1]ongoing court case brought by the FTC against Amazon that alleges the e-tail giant knowingly duped customers into signing up for Prime delivery service and deliberately made it hard for them to cancel a subscription.
The amended filing includes excerpts from an internal Amazon newsletter that states: "The issue of accidental Prime-sign ups is well documented." Prosecutors go on to allege that Amazon execs not only understood netizens were being signed up for Prime, but also created a "labyrinthine" cancellation process that it named "Iliad" – a name taken from an epic poem by Homer.
[2]
Despite internal warnings about the obtuse process, the Amazon execs declined to change the system for fear of causing a "shock" to the business plan.
[3]
[4]
As early as 2016, staff warned that the Prime sign-up process was "designed to mislead or trick users to make them do something they don't want to do, like signing up for a recurring bill."
The complaint, filed in a federal district court in western Washington state, claims Amazon tried to "delay and hinder the FTC's investigation of these issues, including attempting to apply legal privilege to documents that were not privileged and concealing the existence of other relevant, damaging documents."
[5]Amazon Prime too easy to join, too hard to quit, says FTC lawsuit
[6]Amazon to settle Euro antitrust probes by Christmas
[7]FTC approves $61.7m settlement with Amazon for pocketing driver tips
[8]A federal watchdog to police Big Tech? Yeah, that'll do the trick, senators...
The case revolves around the "dark patterns" Amazon is said to have used to lure people into signing up for Prime – underhand webpage and app layout tricks designed to get people to sign up and pay for Prime and then making it hard to cancel the payments. Court [9]documents [PDF] note that Neil Lindsay is now a key member of Amazon's management team advising on corporate strategy.
You're too dumb to use click-to-cancel, Big Biz says with straight face [10]READ MORE
According to the complaint against the tech giant, Amazon customer service representatives were instructed to put people into the epically unpleasant Iliad process to cancel subscriptions – despite being able to resolve such inquiries quickly. The filing claims Lindsay and others knowingly made the cancellation process more complicated than it needed to be to keep people paying, and in some cases even enrolled people who were not active Amazon buyers.
"Prime subscription fees account for $25 billion of Amazon's annual revenue. Approximately 70 percent of Amazon's revenue comes from American consumers," the complaint claims.
[11]
Companies making it easy to sign up for services and then making it very hard to cancel them is nothing new, but the FTC's complaint is aiming to fix the issue for Amazon and others.
The online souk had no comment at time of publication. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/21/amazon_prime_ftc_lawsuit/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/21/amazon_prime_ftc_lawsuit/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/17/amazon_eu_antitrust/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/11/ftc_amazon_flex/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/27/us_lawmakers_propose_new_commission/
[9] https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023-09-20-067-AmendedComplaint%28redacted%29.pdf
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZQu-4dYGgcmfJPiZb-ZfKAAAAxE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Indeed
Anonymous Coward
Tangible personal responsibility would be good.
Hard workers from other departments typically have no influence on decisions of a few rotten apples. Every larger company has them, purely by sampling general population.
Dark patterns on-hold
Winkypop
Try getting a refund from certain airlines.
Some handle it as a 3 minute web request, thanks Air NZ, others a 5-6 hour phone queue. Actual experience.
Looking at you QANTAS.
Re: Dark patterns on-hold
David 132
ISTR reading recently that Wizz Air holds the dubious title of being the worst offender for that - as far as UK customers are concerned, at least.
I only ever flew WA once - to Budapest about a decade ago - and can't honestly say they were any better or worse than the other no-frills/no-service airlines such as Ryanair, Easyjet, British Airways...
Talking of airlines
Anonymous Coward
I wish cabin luggage was normalized when showing on price comparison sites.
Because often seemingly cheap flights end up much more expensive, since you always need a few pairs of spare socks with you.
They still do it!
Roopee
I'm glad some people at Amazon are finally being brought to task, but the real problem is: Amazon still does it!
customer service representatives instructed to put people into the epically unpleasant Iliad process
Might be a nice idea to put said executives into the epically unpleasant bankruptcy and prison process, pour encouragez les autres.