Amazon Stock In Spotlight As FTC Trial Over Alleged ‘Dark Patterns’ In Prime Subscriptions

September 22, 2025

A civil lawsuit alleging that Amazon.com Inc. willfully made it hard for customers opting to sign out of their Prime memberships, and other digital trapping practices in violation of consumer protection laws, will begin trial this week and likely draw increased attention toward the stock.

The Federal Trade Commission, which sued Amazon in 2023, alleges that the e-commerce giant duped nearly 40 million customers and is seeking civil penalties, refunds to consumers, and changes to its subscription practices.

The suit also alleges that Amazon tricked people into signing up for the service without their knowledge or consent.

Launched in 2005, Prime is the largest paid subscription program in the world with at least 200 million users. It currently costs $139 annually, or $14.99 monthly, in the U.S., and allows subscribers to enjoy faster shipping on Amazon’s e-commerce site and access to Amazon’s video streaming service.

The FTC states that Amazon required customers to navigate four webpages and select from 15 options to cancel a Prime membership. The company streamlined the process in April 2023. Amazon has denied the allegations

In recent years, the FTC has probed subscription practices across cosmetics, media, and telecom firms. This year, it filed cases against LA Fitness and Uber, both of which denied the claims, and announced settlements with Chegg ($7.5 million) and Match Group ($14 million), according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Last week, the agency won an initial pretrial victory when a federal judge ruled that Amazon violated consumer-protection laws by taking Prime members’ billing information before disclosing the terms of the membership.

Separately, the FTC, along with several state attorneys general, is pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon for monopolistic practices related to its core e-commerce business. The trial in that case is scheduled to begin in 2027.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for Amazon was ‘bullish’ as of early Monday. AMZN stock is up 5.5% year-to-date.

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