Amazon sanctioned for withholding 70,000 documents in Prime subscription lawsuit

Amazon Prime subscription class action overview:

• Who: A judge has ruled in favor of a motion for sanctions filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Amazon.
• Why: The FTC accused Amazon of abusing its attorney-client privilege claims in a lawsuit alleging the company made it difficult for consumers to cancel their Prime subscriptions.
• Where: The Amazon Prime subscription lawsuit was filed in Washington federal court.

A Washington federal judge has ruled in favor of a motion for sanctions filed by the Federal Trade Commission against Amazon in a lawsuit alleging the company made it difficult for consumers to cancel their Prime subscriptions.

The FTC argued Amazon engaged in “systematic abuse” of attorney-client privilege claims, thereby delaying the production of tens of thousands of documents in the case. The FTC filed the lawsuit against Amazon in June.

Amazon initially claimed privilege over approximately 70,000 documents during discovery, meaning they argued these documents were protected by attorney-client privilege and didn’t have to be turned over to the FTC. However, after March 19, 2025, Amazon withdrew 92% of these privilege claims and produced the documents anyway — essentially admitting that most of these documents weren’t actually privileged.

The judge granted the FTC an additional 90 days to conduct discovery arising from the documents Amazon produced and said the regulator can also seek attorney’s fees and costs associated with the additional discovery.

The judge also ruled that Amazon cannot make affirmative use of documents it produced after March 19, 2025, unless it gets permission from the court.

Amazon had argued that the FTC’s motion for sanctions was “unwarranted” and that it had produced more than 1 million documents in a timely manner.

FTC claims Amazon tricked consumers into enrolling in Prime

The FTC’s Prime subscription lawsuit accuses Amazon of tricking consumers into enrolling in Prime and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.

The FTC claims Amazon used a “dark pattern” to make it easier for consumers to enroll in Prime than to cancel it. The agency also claims Amazon made it difficult for consumers to find the cancellation option and required them to navigate multiple pages and click multiple buttons to cancel their subscriptions.

Amazon has denied the FTC’s allegations and has argued that its Prime cancellation process is clear and easy to use.

What do you think of the judge’s ruling in the Amazon Prime subscription lawsuit? Join the conversation in the comments.

The FTC is represented in-house by Jonathan Cohen, Evan Mendelson, Jonathan W. Ware, Sana Chaudhry, Anthony Saunders, Olivia Jerjian, Colin D.A. MacDonald, Rachel F. Sifuentes and Jeffrey Tang.

The Amazon Prime subscription lawsuit is Federal Trade Commission v. Amazon.com Inc., et al., Case No. 2:23-cv-00932-JHC, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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