Eligible Amazon Prime members will soon see payments from the online retail giant as part of a $2.5 billion settlement stemming from federal allegations that it misled customers.
In September, Amazon agreed to make the payouts in response to a 2023 Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that alleged it enrolled customers in Prime without their consent, and then made it hard for them to cancel their membership.
While Amazon did not admit or deny the FTC’s allegations, under the terms of the settlement, the company agreed to offer $1.5 billion in refunds to subscribers, capped at $51 per person.
The first wave of payments will be automatically distributed and finished by Dec. 24, according to the FTC. The payouts come on the heels of Amazon reporting strong Q3 results while cutting thousands of jobs.
How to qualify
Eligible subscribers must live in the United States and have signed up for Amazon Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, to receive a refund. There will be two subscriber waves included.
The first group is subscribers who signed up for Prime through a “challenged enrollment flow,” and haven’t used more than three Prime benefits in 12 months. These benefits are defined as those “the member would not have received if they were not a Prime member.” They include any version of Universal Prime Decision Page, the Shipping Option Select Page, Prime Video enrollment flow, or the Single Page Checkout, according to a September court order.
Those customers do not need to submit claims.
The second group consists of those who signed up through a challenging enrollment flow or attempted to cancel their memberships unsuccessfully during the five years, and haven’t used more than 10 Prime benefits during any 12-month period they were enrolled.
The settlement defines an attempt to cancel as “entering, but failing to complete, the online cancellation process” or “taking a Save Offer during the online cancelling process.”
Once Amazon completes the automatic payouts, it will send a form to customers eligible to file claims. They will have up to 180 days from the date they receive the claims form to submit it to Amazon.
Getting the refund
Eligible customers will receive their refund via PayPal or Venmo, and should accept it within 15 days, according to the FTC website. If customers prefer a check, they should ignore emails about PayPal and Venmo refunds, and Amazon will mail a check to the default shipping address listed on their Prime subscription. People are asked to cash the check within 60 days.
If an eligible customer does not receive an automatic refund between November and December, they should wait for guidance in 2026, the FTC said. More information can be found here.
Meanwhile, Amazon has turned its focus to revamping its products, including embedding Alexa+ with agentic AI.
