Amazon settles for 2.1 billion in Prime subscription case

Amazon has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, in the case of its (mis)use of consumer data in Prime subscriptions. The settlement will cost the entertainment giant 2.5 billion dollars (2.1 billion euros).

Billion dollar fine

Of those 2.5 billion dollars, one billion will go toward the fine – the highest ever in a FTC case. The remaining 1.5 billion dollars will be used to reimburse users who (sometimes unwillingly) subscribed to Prime and then struggled to end the subscription. Amazon as a company and two specific executives, Neil Lindsay and Jamil Ghani, were also banned from repeating similar illegal practices.