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Amazon was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the online retail giant falsely advertises its “prime” membership to consumers.
A group of Amazon customers from California and Texas allege in their class action lawsuit that they were duped into paying for a prime membership when they purchased products online from Amazon.
According to the Amazon website, “Prime members … enjoy exclusive access to movies and TV shows, ad-free music, Kindle books, original audio series and unlimited photo storage,” in addition to free shipping.
The plaintiffs allege that they purchased products from Amazon under the belief that they would not be charged for a “prime” membership; however, they say that unbeknownst to them they were actually charged for the membership for multiple years. The plaintiffs further claim that Amazon refused to provide a refund when they discovered their accounts were being charged for the prime membership without their consent or knowledge.
“[Amazon] represents to its consumers that they could use its services to purchase products directly from its website at no cost to the consumer in addition to the cost of the product,” the Amazon class action lawsuit states. “However, despite these representations, Defendant charged Plaintiffs and similarly situated consumers additional fees. Specifically, when consumers purchased products from Defendant, they were also charged an additional ‘Amazon Prime’ membership fee”
According to the class action complaint, the plaintiffs and proposed Class Members were never presented with written terms prior to their purchase of Amazon’s prime membership. Additionally, they say that Amazon represented to them and others that they would not be charged for a membership.
The plaintiffs seek to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who used Amazon and were charged for a prime membership along with Texas and California subclasses. The plaintiffs also seek to represent a subclass of individuals who had bank accounts that were charged the prime membership fee by Amazon using electronic fund transfers.
“[A]ll claims in this matter arise from the identical, false, affirmative written statements that consumers would not need to pay additional fees to purchase products from Defendant’s website,” alleges the class action complaint.
The plaintiffs allege that Amazon extracted between $100 and $400 electronically from their bank accounts for prime memberships they didn’t want.
“[Amazon] knew that their representations and omissions were untrue and misleading, and deliberately made the aforementioned representations and omissions in order to deceive reasonable consumers,” alleges the Amazon class action complaint.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon’s marketing and charging of the prime membership fees violates California and Texas consumer protection laws, as well as the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act. The plaintiffs are seeking damages for these claims as well as an order requiring Amazon to notify its customers of its alleged false marketing scheme.
The Amazon consumers are represented by Todd M. Friedman, Adrian R. Bacon, Meghan E. George, and Thomas E. Wheeler of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.
The Amazon Prime Membership False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Laura Makenna, et al. v. Amazon.com LLC, Case No. 3:17-cv-04412, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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545 thoughts onAmazon Class Action Filed Over Unwanted Prime Membership
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For years I’ve managed to avoid the constant harassment and tricks Amazon uses to try to get you to sign up to Amazon Prime, but today it managed to trick me into signing up. I cancelled it as soon as I’d realized (and also closed my Amazon account. I rarely use it now anyway). However, after discussing it with a friend who has been tricked several times, and reading so many comments online, I realize this is a much bigger problem than I’d first thought.
Good luck with the lawsuit and I hope Amazon is made to pay back all money that it has taken from people’s account using underhand and deceptive tricks.
I figured out today that I have two amazon prime accounts I’m being charged for all under my same, one name and one address, one email address and one credit card. One was being charged monthly for the past 18 months and the second annually for the past 5 years. They have refused to refund either account. Except for one month at $12.99. I did not know I had two accounts. They kept me on the phone for 1 hour and 20 min to finally just tell me that sorry, it must be my fault that I signed up for two accounts, which they agree is to no advantage to the consumer. I asked the rep if anyone else had ever figured this out that they unknowingly were being charged for more than one accounted and then called in to complian and he responded, “oh, yes”. When I asked if any customer at Amazon would have a good reason to have two accounts and he said”no”.
Why doesn’t amazon alert people that they are doing this? How can this not be fraud.
They took an annual membership fee from my bank account without me even knowing about it. I have a seller & buyers account. They wouldn’t give me a Refund so I reported to my bank
I have been getting charge for Amazon Prime Membership on 2 different accounts and I never signed up for the membership. I really being asked each time I logged in and each time I declined. But was still charged for almost a year.
I don’t recall signing up for Amazon to rip me off $12.99 each month. I wont buy from them untilI get my $38.97 refund. Dirty trick they play on Senior’s.
This also just happened to me. For the last three years Amazon keeps signing me up and I call to cancel it and they say it’s cancelled and 50% of the time they will issue a refund but then a couple months later it pops up on my credit card that they started charging me again for the Amazon Prime membership, which I don’t want and I told them please do not sign me up for it ever again. Ordering items off Amazon is very convenient but I’m tired of the Amazon Prime scheme. I’m just going to shut my shopping account down and order items from other sites.
I’d like to get in on the law suit then have hit mine. My daughters my 18 yr old grandson who is in boot camp and my 11 year old grandsons accounts really makes me mad
Amazon is still scamming just did this yesterday to us with another peson..clients credit card.never signed or gave permission to themto use another credit card..this is a scam and they r still getting away with it
THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME TWICE AND TODAY THEY TRIED TO GET MONEY FROM A NOW CLOSED ACCOUT.I HAVE HAD TO PUT A STOP ON THEM FOR TAKING MONEYS FROM MY CHECKING ACCOUNT. I AM SO MAD IF AMAZON DOES THIS TO EVERYONE THEY DON’T HAVE TO BOTHER GETTING OUT OF BED IN THE MORNINGS TO WORK JUST LAY BACK AND CHEET HARD WORKING PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR CASH.
They just got me today too. We’ll, I just NOTICED today. What can we do?
Amazon Prime music has removed songs that were originally available on prime music and moved them into unlimited music pay to play. How many other services can they remove from the original prime agreement?
I was charged three times… $107.00 for a yr. And twice$11.84 for monthly fee. I didn’t authorize Audible also charged me $14.95 for three months. I did not authorize. I’m on disability.