Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Amazon faces a putative class action lawsuit filed by a former customer who claims the e-commerce retailer automatically charged his bank account for a Prime premium membership without his consent.
Plaintiff Gregory Harris of California alleges that he purchased products on amazon.com and was informed that he would only be charged for those items. However, Harris claims that his account was upgraded to the premium membership Amazon Prime without his permission.
The Amazon class action lawsuit states that Harris was charged $107.91 for the Prime membership which was automatically taken out of his bank account. Although he canceled the membership after one withdrawal of $107, Harris alleges that Amazon would have continued to take unauthorized, reoccurring payments from his account had they not been stopped.
According to the Amazon Prime class action lawsuit, this is a “common scheme” of the internet retailer used to mislead and entice customers into making purchases from amazon.com, while customers are actually being charged more than what is represented. Harris claims that had Amazon properly represented the hidden fee, he would not have bought products on the website.
The Amazon false advertising class action lawsuit states that Amazon failed to take reasonable steps to inform Harris that he would be charged for a premium membership.
The plaintiff claims that Amazon failed to provide an opportunity for consumers to read and review the accurate conditions of the purchase prior to buying the items: “As such, defendant took advantage of defendant’s position of perceived power in order to deceive plaintiff and the class members to use its services.”
Harris states that the Amazon membership fee violates California’s False Advertising Act which makes it illegal to engage in advertising “which is untrue or misleading and which is known, or which by the exercise of reasonable care should be known, to be untrue or misleading…”
The Amazon Prime membership class action lawsuit also claims that the company violated the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act which states that a “preauthorized electronic fund transfer from a consumer’s account may be authorized by the consumer only in writing, and a copy of such authorization shall be provided to the consumer when made.”
If approved, the Amazon class action lawsuit would be open to all U.S. consumers who purchased products from amazon.com and were charged an additional membership fee. Harris is also hoping to represent a subclass of U.S. Class Members whose bank accounts were debited on a reoccurring basis by Amazon without obtaining a written authorization signed or similarly authenticated for preauthorized electronic fund transfers within the past year.
Another recently filed Amazon class action lawsuit regarding Amazon’s list price was dismissed in October 2015 by a California federal court. Plaintiffs Andrea Fagerstrom and Allen Wiseley, claimed that Amazon misrepresented competitive pricing by only selecting the highest price it could find for a particular item. According to the court, the plaintiffs accepted the terms of Amazon’s arbitration agreement at the time they made their online purchase therefore the case was dismissed.
Harris is represented by Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.
The Amazon Prime False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Gregory Harris, et al. v. Amazon.com LLC, Case No. BC606984 in the Superior Court of California For the County of Los Angeles.
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING
Top Class Actions is a Proud Member of the American Bar Association
LEGAL INFORMATION IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
©2008 – 2024 Top Class Actions® LLC
Various Trademarks held by their respective owners
This website is not intended for viewing or usage by European Union citizens.
165 thoughts onAmazon Faces Prime Membership Class Action Lawsuit
Same for me. No notice
Did the same to me twice.. price was $99
You can add me to class action suit. They started off at a $75.00 price and then up their price and took it out without prior authorization.
Has anyone ever gotten the refund
Amazon did the same thing with my account. Then got mad because I refuse to buy anything else. Ew
They did the same to me, told me they would email me before payment was took out, I never received one, nor did they ask for any authorization to take out of my account. Which goes to show, they could take out money at any given time
I renewed my prime after the 30 days trial. I continued the prime because it said I would not have to make any payment until 12/17/2017. All of a sudden twice in a day for about a week I noticed that Amazon has been trying to charge without my consent.
Amazon took out their 104 in December from my checking account and I had got prime the previous year, there is a button you can select to auto renew and I made sure I clicked on that so that it would NOT auto renew. They took the money out without sending out a email saying it was coming out which is a amazon policy and it would’ve caused me to be overdrawn if by the grace of God my home insurance didn’t renew and I didn’t have a payment that month.
I was charged for prime, and I was not shocked….Under account settings, there is a way to disable this option. AND they communicate this to you before hand. The issue I have is that they charged tax on the membership even though I was in a state that was amazon was not collecting tax for. There was a move involved and appropriate addresses were updated. Still tax was collected. Issue was resolved, but their outsourced helpers were not understanding of the issue. Once an inhouse person was involved the issue was understood and resolved.
Same thing was done to me as well they charged $105.00 to my bank account without no head up payment for renewing prime no email took was received money out off my account without my permission on my bank statement it say signed purchase to Amazon prime that’s a lie I had not called or gave them permission to go ahead with the payment understood that they have my card on file but my personal opinion that’s should be a lawsuit against them with as Many ppl complaining about the same thing this is not professional for a company to do this.pissed consumers lead to less consumers for Amazon as it will be hard for new subscribers to trust a company if they see these type of reviews or comments about them how do they know how much r in ppl accounts at the time or what other bills need to be paid thanks for putting my account in the negitive and lovely overdraft fees I have gotten on my bank statement my bank will be doing an investigation on this as well
I never had the problem, however, I have had a problem of the item ( toilet paper ) that once I subscribed every 3 months. Even I canceled to reoccur, Amazon sent me an email of Order confirmation of the toilet paper,which happened twice so far.. when I consulted with an Amazon agent for a couple times, they mentioned that my account was hacked… I just deleted all of my credit card info, so they cant charge me automatically. I like Amazon and their customer service though…
Re Amazon, I was shocked to to see that they had charged my credit card for Prime Membership even though I had not asked for it. When I saw my credit card statement I called them and got them to cancel it and refund my money. The charge was done and money taken without my consent or knowledge.
Same thing happened to me, except I didn’t notice because the credit card was completely payed off and
I didn’t pay any attention to it until the letters started arriving. They ruined my credit score and I had to close
my credit card and bank account because of how angry I was.
You should file a suit. They did this to me also, and I happened to notice it quickly. It’s very unethical, and someone there should have the balls to stand up and say to the idiots “We MUST not do this”. I shall not use them again, and I have lost all respect for them.
They just hit me tonight with a $108.41 for Prime Junk. I did not authorize it and my account went negative. I told them this is just like stealing money from me. I don’t get it. Big companies taking money from the little guy and apologize and move on. You go into the gas station and steal $40 bucks and you get 3 years in prison. This does not make sense to me….
Where do I call them? They charged me $100 without my consent.