Amazon will pay $2.5 billion in fines and reimbursements to Prime subscribers to settle the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's allegations that it deceived its customers to generate subscriptions, the agency said on Thursday.
While a win for consumers and the FTC, the settlement is relatively painless for Amazon: the company takes in around $2.5 billion in sales every 33 hours. Shares of Amazon were nearly unchanged after the news.
Around 35 million Prime customers will be eligible for payout from a $1.5 billion fund, the FTC said. Amazon will pay $1 billion in fines to the FTC. The company did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.