But still though, Amazon isn’t counting on huge shopping events alone to make a solid income. Amazon is huge in advertising and it also has a solid side hustle with tech, as it makes a slew of products like smart speakers and tablets.
Oh, yeah, and it also has Amazon Prime. You know, the subscription service? That it may be tricking you into signing up for. And then making it really hard to cancel. But you know, these are the FTC’s words, not mine!
The Echo Dot is still cute in 2023. | Image credit – PhoneArena
So, the Federal Trade Commission has now officially sued Amazon over claims that it is fooling users into joining Amazon Prime. The basis? The company has violated not one, but two acts, related to clean dealings with online customers. This, in turn, has been uncovered through an investigation, which has been going on ever since March of 2021.
But how does that happen? Here’s the sinister plot that Amazon has been employing:
- Convince a user to sign up for a 30-day Prime trial during checkout
- Then, when the time comes to cancel, just hide the button really, really well
Are you hearing the sound of a mustache being twirled?
Yep, all it takes is to give you something for almost free and then make it very difficult to take it away. As per the FTC’s description, users had to go through pages upon pages just to find the option to cancel. And naturally, if they didn’t — the trial period would end and you’d get charged.
Said charge is non-refundable. After it happens, you’re likely to unsubscribe with a passion, but hey — it got a month’s worth of money from you. And from, like, thousands of other users. So, how much money has Amazon made through this scheme? Well, we don’t know, but the FTC seems to think it’s quite a lot.
As of now, Amazon has not come forward with any comments on the situation. But the report from Engadget makes it pretty clear that the FTC has gotten enough on its hands to move the case forward. Will it succeed? Well, I’d raise a different question: will it matter if it does?
