Ahead of Prime Day, Amazon is sued for 'manipulative tactics' that trick customers into taking out and renewing Prime subscriptions

The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon for fooling customers into "unknowingly" subscribing to Amazon Prime. The company is accused of using manipulation and "dark patterns" to dupe people into what the FTC describes as "Nonconsensual Enrollments".

As well as the accusation of tricking customers into Prime Subscriptions, the FTC's complaints say that the company makes the cancellation process "labyrinthine". The Commission points out that while signing up for an auto-renewing Prime account takes just two clicks, bringing the subscription to an end requires navigating "four-page, six-click, fifteen-option cancellation process".

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The case, brought against Amazon by the Federal Trade Commission in the Western US District Court for Washington state, says the online retailer engaged in a "years-long effort to enroll consumers into its Prime program without their consent while knowingly making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions".

The FTC's complaint alleges:

For years, Defendant Amazon.com, Inc. has knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service. Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as "dark patterns" to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.

What's more, the FTC says Amazon not only purposely made leaving Prime incredibly difficult, but it also practically joked about the fact by referring to the cancellation process as the Iliad Flow -- a reference to the equally complicated and lengthy epic poem by Homer.

The commission says: "Amazon did not design the Iliad Flow to be simple or easy for consumers. The Iliad Flow inhibits or prevents many consumers who intend to cancel from cancelling their membership".

The cancellation process the FTC is complaining about was in place from as early as 2016 right up until April this year in the US.

You can see a  redacted version of the complaint here.

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