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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
My husband and I have both been rounds with Amazon over this! They’re obviously making a fortune ripping people off!!
Please help Amazon is charging monthly.. for prime when I closed it out 12/2018!
Amazon prime charged me for a prime membership, without me knowing when I ordered off Amazon internet,I cancelled after the year and found out they startedcharging me again and I called and cancelled and wanted a refund but they refused,I would like to be in a class action against Amazon
I have a side amazon account I barely use (once a year so my SO doesn’t see gifts), my main amazon account has prime benefits.
I got an email one day that my card has been declined for prime on my side account, which prompted me to discover that I’ve been being charged for over a year without my knowledge on an amazon account I don’t use.
Discovered that Amazon was charging my individual account for Prime when my husband already has a Prime Account, which we use for the benefits.
Shame on Jeff Bezos
I had been charged almost 6 months for prime and the wrote me a letter asking why I wasn’t using it and I didn’t even realize I was being charged for it
Just canceled my card because prime keeps taking my money
I would like to be added to the class action lawsuit. I was being billed $14.22 a month without my authority. Amazon reimbursed me for 3 months only. This is fraud!
I would like to included on this class action lawsuit I did not sign up for Amazon prime and Im being billed 12.00$ a month
Amazon Prime is charging me $148.00 plus $38.00 late fees for my Amazon Prime. I did not know that they charged such high fee for the privilege to use their card. Their fee were not printed anywhere one could see. I think they are a bunch of crooks and because they are so rich & powerful they can do anything they want. I have reported them to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). I don’t think it will do any good. I would like to join a class action against Amazon but don’t know where to start.
I am very frustrated with Amazon right now. From 3/4/19 to 3/12/19 a prime membership has been autogenerated without my authorization. Fortunately I check my email regularly otherwise I would not know I am being charged until I reconcile my accounts. I have not made a purchase since December; therefore, there should be no reason I should be charged or a membership started at all as I did not request it. Additionally, I have called and spoke to two representatives who 1) “cancelled” the membership on their side and I received cancellation notifications 2) both representatives proceeded to tell me that there are certain items you can purchase that will auto generate a membership and make it auto renewable without the customer having to actively select the option.
I am at my wits end and do not know what to do at this point since the membership keeps coming back and I’m not doing anything to generate it.
What can I do?!?!
ME TOO. Only this is over-billing abuse by greedy Amazon. They must be collecing money for Jeff Bozo’s billion dollar alimony.
They did not disclose to me. They lifted monthly membership off my debit account, then sent it to their in-house collection who ruined me credit, then they reverted to billing me via Synchrony, and my alleged zerobalance is now over $197. Nice company. Just shop with ebay. No tricks. Great same products same prices. No Amazon pain. QUESTION: IS THERE A CURRENT CLASS ACTION I COULD JOIN.
Anyone – please let me know.