Amazon has begun issuing payments to eligible Prime members as part of its $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The e-commerce giant agreed to the payouts in September to resolve a 2023 lawsuit in which the FTC accused Amazon of misleading customers into enrolling in Prime and making it difficult for them to cancel their membership.

Under the settlement, Amazon agreed to pay $1 billion in civil penalties and $1.5 billion to eligible customers.

The retail company neither admitted to nor denied the FTC’s allegations when it agreed to the payouts.

“Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” Amazon wrote in a September statement. “We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership.”

The payouts began earlier this month and will continue through December, the FTC confirmed to NBC News on Thursday.

How much money will eligible customers receive?

Eligible Prime members will receive a refund of their Amazon Prime subscription fees, up to a maximum of $51.

Who is eligible for an automatic refund?

According to the FTC, eligible customers must meet these three requirements:

• You are an Amazon Prime customer in the United States.

• You signed up for an Amazon Prime subscription through a “challenged enrollment flow” (the universal Prime decision page, shipping selection page, single page checkout, or the Prime Video enrollment flow) between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025.

• You used no more than three Amazon Prime benefits (including Prime Music or Prime Video products offered for free to Prime subscribers) in any 12-month period following Amazon Prime enrollment.

How and when will eligible customers get their automatic refund?

Eligible customers will receive an email from Amazon between Nov. 12 and Dec. 24 and can get their refund by PayPal or Venmo. Customers must accept their refund within 15 days.

Customers who prefer to receive their payment by check should ignore the email from Amazon. Once they do not claim the PayPal or Venmo payment, Amazon will mail them a check to their default shipping address listed on their Prime subscription. Customers should cash their checks within 60 days.

“If consumers are eligible to submit a claim but were not eligible for automatic payments, they will be notified between December 24th and January 23, 2026,” Amazon spokesman Mark Blafkin told NBC News on Thursday.