The start of the “Amazon” trial on charges of defrauding to increase “Prime” subscribers

Yesterday, Amazon’s trial started in the United States, which will determine if the giant e -commerce company used illegal tricks to force millions to subscribe to the paid “Prime” service and make the cancellation of the subscription almost impossible.

In 2023, the Federal Trade Committee “FTC” began looking at the case accusing “Amazon” of publishing misleading facades known as “dark patterns” intentionally, to deceive consumers when paying the price of their purchases, and paying them to participate in “Prime”, the comprehensive subscription service, compared to $ 139 annually.

The case focuses on the charges of winning subscribers without their explicit consent through confusing payment operations, and the establishment of a deliberate complex cancellation system, internally called “Iliad”, on the name of Homer’s poem on the long and difficult Trojan war.

The case is considered by the Federal Court in Seattle, a body headed by Judge John Chun, who is also considered in another case filed by the Federal Trade Committee on “Amazon”, but this time by claiming illegal monopoly, and the second case is scheduled to be considered during the year 2027.

The two cases are part of a series of lawsuits that were recently established, under democratic and republican departments, to reduce the dominance of many major technology companies, such as “Google” and “Apple”, after years of government leniency.

According to the court documents, Amazon was aware of the spread of “unwanted contributions” in the “Prime” service, but opposed the changes that would have reduced their numbers and thus their revenues.

The Federal Trade Committee said that the payment process in “Amazon” forced the dealers to browse complex interfaces, as the cancellation of the subscription to “Prime” required clicking on small, non -visible links, while the subscription was made by clicking on large and prominent buttons.

In contrast, the price and automatic renewal were hidden or written in a small line.

The initial indictment states that “for years (Amazon) deliberately deceived millions of consumers to participate in the Amazon Prime service without their knowledge.”

Amazon’s annual revenues from Prime contributions amounted to $ 25 billion, according to the indictment for 2023.

In addition, yesterday, the American judiciary also began hearing to decide on a lawsuit against Google aimed at its advertising system, a measure that recently demanded the US government to end the practices of the technology giant who is in competing.

This second federal lawsuit that is held this year on “Google”, after the company was convicted on charges of misuse of its dominant position on the electronic search market.

However, in this case, the judge refused the US government to compel Google to sell the Chrome browser in early September.

The first case relates to the “Google” advertising platform, which is the interface used by websites to sell advertising spaces, and advertisers for their purchase.