Live data from Hacker News

Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

ftc.gov

11–20 of 191 posts

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#12
post #3

Is this one of those situations where we sign up and get a bit of money from the company, or will we have already been contacted?

My guess is 95%+ of the restitution will be in the form of a free year of Amazon prime. I'm pretty cynical though.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#13
> harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices

I'm still confused by this part.

I didn't use Prime for a long time. I remember lots of buttons inviting me to sign up, just like YouTube asks me weekly if I want to subscribe to premium.

But I don't remember anything seemingly deceptive, and none of the news articles seem to actually provide any details. So what precisely was deceptive?

And even the cancellation part, it's just two confirmation screens. It doesn't seem bad. It honestly seems about the same as any other website subscription I've ever had. You click to cancel, say yes I really don't want the benefits (this is the only extra step), and then click to confirm the cancellation.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#16

The proposed remedy seems fine. What stuck out to me is the "Trump-Vance" attribution: I haven't seen something like that since the election.

Anything that happens during this presidency (even if started under biden) gets a trump by-line...

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#17
post #4

The actual win isn't the fine, it's > and cease unlawful enrollment and cancellation practices for Prime. which thank god, Amazon deserves to be in the hall of fame for their multiple beg screens.

It is two screens, three clicks - not hard at all. https://www.amazon.com/mm/pipeline/cancellation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddxPcnMG0fE

I'm honestly confused, cancelling prime doesn't seem hard lol, its the typical "are you sure" shit every site has

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#18

The proposed remedy seems fine. What stuck out to me is the "Trump-Vance" attribution: I haven't seen something like that since the election.

Didn't you know that this administration is all about feeding lies?

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#19
post #4

The actual win isn't the fine, it's > and cease unlawful enrollment and cancellation practices for Prime. which thank god, Amazon deserves to be in the hall of fame for their multiple beg screens.

It is two screens, three clicks - not hard at all. https://www.amazon.com/mm/pipeline/cancellation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddxPcnMG0fE

That’s double the amount of screens and triple the amount of clicks it should take.

I subscribe to as many things as I can through Apple because I can instantly unsubscribe without companies wasting my time.

Re: Amazon fined $2.5B for using deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime

#20

> harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices I'm still confused by this part. I didn't use Prime for a long time. I remember lots of buttons inviting me to sign up, just like YouTube asks me weekly if I want to subscribe to premium. But I don't remember anything seemingly deceptive, and none of the news articles seem to actually provide any details. So what precisely was deceptive? And even the cancellation…

I canceled Prime about 18 months ago, and now every single time I go to check out on Amazon, before the checkout page there's a splash screen a the gigantic, bright blue CHECK OUT WITH PRIME button, and then under that, in 8pt font with grey-on-white text, a "No thanks, continue without Prime" link. The lack of any subtlety would be hilarious if it wasn't so irritating. Throw the book at them.
Post reply on HN