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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.
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165 thoughts onAmazon Faces Prime Membership Class Action Lawsuit
Amazon prime kept charging my debit card so I stopped putting money on the card and then I tried to log into my account to cancel Amazon prime all of sudden I couldn’t log in they were sending me a code to a phone I do not have nir do I have the service so I made another account to order some work shoes if which I bought a amazon gift card to order it I read my credit card statement and Amazon prime charged my credit card so I logged in my new account and it said I didn’t subscribe to prime so my old account got my credit card number somehow because I never used my credit card on either account especially my old account and I would never use a credit card for a monthly charge
THEY BILLED ME THIS MONTH FOR PRIME MEMBERSHIP. I AT NO TIME EVER AGREED TO A MEMBERSHIP YET THEY FRAUDULENTLY REMOVED THE MONEY FROM MY ACCOUNT, AFTER CONTACTING THEM AND GOING THREWW THE PAIN IN THE ASS TO ACTUALLY SPEAK TO A SERVICE REP AND ASKING FOR THE TIME AND DATE I SUPPOSEDLY AUTHORIZED IT. RTHEN TELLING THEM THIS CONSTITUTES FEDAL WIRE FRAUD AS WELL AS SEVERAL OTHER FEDERAL BANKING LAWS. THEY DID CANCEL IT WITH OUT FURTHER ISSUE BUT THE FACT IS IT WAS AND IS WIRE FRAUD, SUE THE PISS OUT OF THEM SO COMPANIES THINK TWICE NEXT TIME. i PERSONASLLY WILL NEVER USE AMAZON AGAIN. I DONT DO BUSINESS WITH CROOKS AND THIEVES. AND THEY NEED TO PAY MILLIONS FOR PULLING THIS B.S.
How do I sign on to this class action? Amazon deducted membership fees for 6 years from me without ever informing me I was a member. Or asking if I wanted to renew. Now they will only refund one year.
I only realized they were doing this because I’d changed my credit card. Amazon asked me to renew on this card.
What can be done? This is so WRONG.
I was signed up as a prime member without my permission. I want my money back. Please help.
I just realized after 6 months that Amazon was now charging me for the amazon alexa music, no longer provided through my prime membership. So they charge you $6.99/mon and this other thing called Freetime – for $3.99. I don’t recall signing up for either of these, but it’s pretty ridiculous how they just slide these charges in and without my consent, they have it auto-renew! I am talking to my attorney, I know this is definitely sly. I can’t believe a company as large as Amazon is doing this.
Amazon needs to be reported to the federal government and credit bureau and anything other place. My comment did talk about the product and my experience, i never used any bad language. I have noticed that amazon is just accepting good reviews and rejects reviews from people who had a negative experience and therefore put only 1 star and that’s not ok because customers need to know when not to buy something so they don’t waste their money on it and by not allowing bad reviews to be posted then your allowing others to not be informed about a terrible product and this needs to be addressed and reported. I am going to look into reporting amazon, I hope everyone else does too. They need to change their ways or not have a business at all.
This is still happening. Three or four times in the past couple months I’ve gotten “Welcome to Amazon Prime” emails and charges despite the fact that I haven’t been on the site in weeks and haven’t actually bought anything in months. I haven’t gotten any free trials and I haven’t bought a Prime subscription, and even if I did, the fact that I canceled it three times in a row over a month ago means that I shouldn’t be part of the subscription anymore, no? So why am I still getting added on to it? At this point it seems better just to close my Amazon account all together, because clearly they’re doing some shady stuff just to make some more money off their customers.
I have had the same thing happen to me—twice in the past 12 months!
They are still doing it. The button you click on for “Free 2 day shipping” (whiched I qualified for because I spent $29.99or more) or Sign up for Prime is in same “bubble”- still takes you to Prime and signs you up. No, I watched, I did NOT click wrong button.
How do I sign on to this class action? Amazon deducted membership fees for 5 years from me without ever informing me I was a member. Or asking if I wanted to renew. Now they will only refund one year.
I only realized they were doing this because I’d changed my credit card. Amazon asked me to renew on this card. Not a member (knowingly), I ignored. Then they sent a notice on my Amazon app that they would try to get auto pay from my new card.
What can be done? This is so WRONG.
will on this end it is not better day after day amazon is acting like a criminal organization not like a real company