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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 $400 electronically from their bank accounts for prime memberships they didn’t want.
“[Amazon] knew that their representations and omissions were untrue and misleading, and deliberately made the aforementioned representations and omissions in order to deceive reasonable consumers,” alleges the Amazon class action complaint.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon’s marketing and charging of the prime membership fees violates California and Texas consumer protection laws, as well as the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act. The plaintiffs are seeking damages for these claims as well as an order requiring Amazon to notify its customers of its alleged false marketing scheme.
The Amazon consumers are represented by Todd M. Friedman, Adrian R. Bacon, Meghan E. George, and Thomas E. Wheeler of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.
The Amazon Prime Membership False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Laura Makenna, et al. v. Amazon.com LLC, Case No. 3:17-cv-04412, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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545 thoughts onAmazon Class Action Filed Over Unwanted Prime Membership
Im being charged 5.99 as expected for my lower cost prime membership but also since June have been receiving 12.99 charges along side the regular fee. Amazon refuses to explain why.
Id like to be contacted by counsel.
questcns@yahoo.com
I get charged every other week for Prime Video canalled my subscription and a day later I get an email welcome to Prime. How ca I be part of a class action suite
Just got off the phone with my banks. I currently have 3 different charges from “amazon digital 888” totaling 35$ each for a different ammount. I cancelled and started claims.
I am consulting lawyer come morning. As I have a feee prime membership through my cellphone account. (Not attached to bank account) I have no other amazon services … so how are you charging my card ?
I am being charged monthly for the service. Every module of Amazon’s services under Prime has different charges to it.
I am outraged at reading the comments on this site! I have just found out that I have been signed up for SIX years and paid over $500! They continue to trick people and do not send a bill or have anywhere on one’s Amazon account that states the amount being charged. They have to become more transparent. My husband’s school was also taken in. No wonder they can charge less than other book companies because we are all subsidizing the costs of what they are selling. This way of selling Amazon Prime is fraudulent. We need another class action suit in Canada!
Amazon signed me up for Prime at some point AND randomly subscribed me to HBO for $14.99 in June 2020 and STARZ for $8.99 in July 2020 on Prime video!
I’d like to be apart of this class action! Amazon needs to be held accountable for the shady business practices going on behind the scene.
I too have been scammed by Amazon on the ‘free delivery’ extortion and would like to know how to join the class in this lawsuit.
Thanks,
Valerie
Amazon signed me up for Prime membership “trial” a week ago without my knowledge, so I contacted them immediately and canceled online, along with a rather nasty email expressing my feelings. Today I checked my credit card and found a $14.99 unauthorized charge from “Prime Video” on my account which I am currently disputing……… shame on them for trying to rip off people during this confusing time!
So sad that they have to resort to this low.. Greedy ripoff artists. My wife asked me to cancel amazon prime and I told her I don’t have prime. She’s been paying 18 dollars a month for prime I don’t even have. 2 hours on hold with my bank trying to stop these payments finally found Amazon’s number and without hesitation are going to refud three months worth. I have to fight for the other eight months. What a pain.. Sue their asses off please.
Anybody who paid and never used the service should get a refund, they are still deceiving people into signing with one click, many click and never know they did, then Amazon charges and never sends confirmation emails, it’s all a big scam.
We canceled 6 months ago, and have been charged the same monthly fee we were paying of 12.99 every single month since cancelation. We have changed passwords and removed all credit card info and have still are charged. The first 2 months caused us overdraft fees, cause we move money into savings around the same time as this hits. Now, we know better and leave enough in there. We have to call every month and get refunded. It’s either a glitch, or every person we’ve talked to doesn’t actually cancel us, they just refund us. Another thing, is when we get charged, it doesn’t ever actually change our account to prime status. Haha. Shady stuff Amazon. This is probably a common practice. Until there is a whistle-blower or they end up having to pay more out then what they’re stealing, I’m afraid I’ll be calling them every month until I cancel my card and get a new one.
It’s ridiculous! I never had memberships/digital services to began with but they keep charging different cards of mines. Since April 2018, even after I asked them several times to stop accessing my cards, they even told me, they do not see that I ordered the services/memberships, or that they’re even linked to my account with them but they still continue to charge my cards.
I just noticed that Amazon signed me up for Prime membership, without my knowledge. I contacted them immediately, finding out that my cards were charged since 2017. They said it is canceled, so I thought. Today I checked my credit card and found yet another $14.99 unauthorized charge from “Prime” on my account. I am currently disputing it once again. Shame on them for trying to rip people off during this world chaos going on…