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Amazon lawsuits overview:
- Who: Amazon made headlines recently for lawsuits, an investigation and a $30 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
- Why: Amazon has been accused of using fake original prices, making it difficult for its Plus subscribers to cancel, falsely labeling a glucosamine product and colluding with Apple to harm competition.
- Where: The Amazon lawsuits are nationwide.
Amazon has been in the news recently thanks to a trio of class action lawsuits, a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a Senate investigation and a $30 million settlement that put an end to two federal data privacy lawsuits.
Amazon accused of using fake original prices to trick consumers
In April, a consumer filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon, arguing the company deceived consumers by allegedly posting Amazon Prime discounts that were not discounted from a real price.
The consumer behind the complaint argues Amazon posted the allegedly false original prices to make consumers believe they were receiving a greater discount than was actually the case.
Amazon is accused of violating FTC guidelines by advertising the allegedly false original prices for the sale items.
The proposed class includes Amazon users nationwide who purchased a product listed as being on sale at a discount of more than $500 from an original price not used for at least six months of the previous year.
FTC claims Amazon intentionally makes it difficult for Plus subscribers to cancel membership
Last month, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Amazon over claims the American multinational technology company intentionally makes it difficult for its Amazon Plus subscribers to cancel their memberships.
The FTC argues Amazon uses a “manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface design” as a way to entice users to sign up for Amazon Plus subscriptions before knowingly complicating the cancellation process.
“These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike. The FTC will continue to vigorously protect Americans from ‘dark patterns’ and other unfair or deceptive practices in digital markets,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan says in a statement.
Amazon falsely labeled glucosamine products as glucosamine sulfate, class action says
In May, a consumer filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon — along with Whole Foods Market — arguing the companies sold glucosamine products falsely labeled as glucosamine sulfate.
The consumer behind the complaint argues the glucosamine supplements actually contain a mixture of glucosamine hydrochloride and potassium sulfate, which the National Institutes of Health allegedly determined does not work as well as glucosamine sulfate.
“A reasonable consumer would believe, as Plaintiffs did, that the label statements regarding the identity, quantity and purity of the Affected Products would be truthful and not deceptive or misleading,” the Amazon class action lawsuit states.
Bernie Sanders launches Amazon safety investigation
In June, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, informing him that the Senate would conduct an investigation into the condition of company warehouses and its compliance with workplace safety laws.
Sanders writes the focus of the investigation will be the ““dangerous and illegal conditions at Amazon’s warehouses.”
“The company’s quest for profits at all costs has led to unsafe physical environments, intense pressure to work at unsustainable rates, and inadequate medical attention for tens of thousands of Amazon workers every year,” Sanders writes in the letter.
Sanders claims Amazon pushes its workers past their limitations prior to “discarding them when they are no longer useful.”
Amazon to pay $30M to end FTC children’s privacy claims
Also in June, Amazon agreed to pay $30 million to settle a pair of lawsuits brought against it by FTC regulators who claimed the company’s Alexa and Ring services violated children’s privacy rights.
Amazon was accused of breaching privacy laws with its Alexa devices by allegedly having the voice assistant service store recordings of children for years despite promising to delete the data.
The FTC claimed Amazon violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) after determining the default setting for the Alexa devices had it collect the recordings of children indefinitely unless a parent asked for the data to be deleted.
“COPPA does not allow companies to keep children’s data forever for any reason and certainly not to train their algorithms,” Samuel Levine, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, says in a statement.
Third-party competition class action survives second dismissal attempt
A class action lawsuit filed against Amazon and Apple over claims they work together to “eliminate or at least severely reduce” competition from third-party merchants who sell Apple products survived a second dismissal attempt last month.
“Vigorous competition from the third-party merchants exerts downward pressure on the online prices that both Apple and Amazon can charge for Apple products,” the Amazon and Apple class action states.
The judge overseeing the complaint determined the plaintiff had plausibly alleged Apple and Amazon have an agreement in place that harms competition in the U.S. online marketplace.
Amazon and Apple, in asking for the claims to be dismissed, argued Amazon does not compete in the same market as Apple’s online store, meaning any agreement between the two companies would not be against the law.
Have you been affected by any of the Amazon lawsuits? Let us know in the comments.
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384 thoughts onAmazon faces lawsuits over Prime subscriptions, discounts; Senate investigates labor practices
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They literally just charged me $139 without my consent, for prime,, and have been charging me repeatedly for a amazon kids , when I never subscribed!
FOR MONTHS Amazon was double charging me for the same account on two different payment methods and never returned the money for the double payments
To continue my post from 2 mibutes ago i would like to add additional facts. When i fisrt set uo my frire tv boxes i created a PIN. This PIN was required to make a make a video purchase, and I used it many times. Fast forward a few years, apparently tha Amazon Prime video PIN does not work on Amazon Fire TV Stick or box. Well isnt that an oxymoron. How ridiculous. Furthermore, it is a general practice when upgrading software with bew features to insure the software is still backwardly compatible, which apparently not the case here. One has to wonder if this was intentional. Furthermore, was there any notification to Prime members that PINs would no longer work? This notification should have been made by both email and on screen during any successive puchases through Prime Video. Did this occur? I highly doubt it, and if true lends credence to the deceptive nature of these changes to the PIN functionality. I understand upgrading to 2-factor authentication, where users are given the option if they so desire. If they dont desire 2-factor authentication they are still able to use the old option, except at Amazon. Also it ta very confusing to use the correct app which is required for your subscriotion, and easy fir many to make a mistake. Then let’s also mention how confusing it is to look up your subscriptions. Some are under video subscroptions while others don’t ask or up there and requir you to look up in your orders. How on earth are people expected to know this? I noticed that my Hulu subscription is not found in either places. Could they be hiding the fact that i was charged $74 one month. Rather interesting this subscription was removed from my history. All is why I removed all my video subscriptions from Amazon in June of 2021. Unfortunate they continued to charge me for these services, and additional subscriptions I never even had for 2 more years. Not very honorable, and more like thieves.!