Amazon Prime Video is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, but its parent company Amazon, is now facing serious trouble in court. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has accused the company of tricking millions of people into signing up for Prime memberships and then making it very difficult to cancel.
The case focuses on what the FTC calls “dark patterns.” These are design tricks on websites that push customers toward certain choices. In this case, customers were often enrolled into the $139 a year Prime service while checking out, sometimes without realising it. The FTC says Amazon made the “yes” button clear and simple, but buried the “no” option in small links and fine print.
Once signed up, canceling Prime was not easy either. The FTC says Amazon created a system so complex that it was internally called “Iliad,” a reference to the long and painful Trojan War. Customers had to go through multiple pages, clicks, and confusing options before they could finally cancel.
Court filings also suggest Amazon knew about these problems but avoided fixing them because the unwanted sign-ups brought in more money. Prime is a key part of Amazon’s business, as members tend to spend far more than non-members.
And these dirty tricks are not just limited to the USA. They are very much used even in India but nobody cares how difficult it is to cancel a subscription once we have bought it.