The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Amazon for an alleged "multi-year effort" to get consumers to subscribe to subscription services without their consent.

According to the complaint, Amazon has been using "manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user interface designs, known as dark patterns," to trick consumers into signing up for an Amazon Prime membership that automatically renews; the FTC alleges that this practice has been going on for years, and that the FTC has been "using a variety of tactics to trick consumers into signing up for the service. FTC alleges that this practice has been going on for years and violates the FTC Act and the Restoring Online Shoppers' Trust Act.

The FTC further alleges that Amazon intentionally made it difficult for users who did not subscribe to Prime to purchase or search for products. According to the statement, if a customer subscribed to Prime, "the button provided to the consumer to finalize the transaction did not clearly indicate that selecting that option would also subscribe to Prime with a subscription."

Also, when customers attempted to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions, according to the FTC, the online retailer used "dark patterns" to intentionally make the process difficult. When attempting to cancel an Amazon Prime subscription or turn off the auto-renewal feature, users had to click through numerous pages filled with offers for discounted Prime services before finally being able to cancel.

The FTC alleges that this cancellation process was intentionally designed to "prevent consumers from canceling their Prime membership." According to the complaint, Amazon code-named this multi-layered cancellation process, which began internally in 2016, "Iliad" or "Iliad Flow," and appears to have been inspired by a large poem about the "long and difficult Trojan War."

FTC Chair Lina M. Khan declared that Amazon "tricked and trapped" individuals into subscribing to Amazon Prime. She emphasized that "these manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike," and that "the FTC will continue to vigorously protect Americans from 'dark patterns' and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets."

In response, Amazon issued a statement to Reuters, arguing that the FTC's allegations are "contrary to fact and law." In addition, Amazon argued that "customers love Prime, and by design, it is clear and easy for customers to sign up for or cancel their Prime membership." In April, Amazon changed the Prime cancellation process, reducing the number of clicks required to cancel or turn off auto-renewal on mobile and desktop. This, too, was probably an act of "love," rather than the result of increased pressure from regulatory agencies that have been investigating the issue for years.