Amazon Prime Membership Settlement: A Step-by-Step Guide to Claiming Your Share

Amazon recently settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $2.5 billion, following accusations of making it tricky for customers to cancel their Prime memberships. If you’re eligible, you could receive up to $51 from the generous $1.5 billion that will be going directly to consumers. The remaining $1 billion will be a civil penalty, according to CNET.

The investigation into Amazon’s Prime membership practices revealed that executives were aware of the difficulty in canceling subscriptions but failed to address the issue. Despite Amazon’s claim that they have always followed the law and worked hard to provide clear and simple subscription processes, changes will be made as part of the settlement.

For those who automatically qualify for a refund, you can expect to receive it by December 24 if you’ve used your Prime benefits three times or less in a 12-month period. The refund will come in the form of monetary compensation, not store credits or gift cards, as reported by USA Today. If you don’t qualify for automatic payment, the claims administrator will provide instructions on how to file a claim by January 23, with a submission deadline of July 23.

To be eligible for the settlement, you must have signed up for Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, and attempted to cancel your subscription or signed up through specific pages on the Amazon site. These include pages like the “Universal Prime Decision Page” and the “Single Page Checkout.”

If you’re one of the affected customers, keep an eye out for communications from the claims administrator to make sure you don’t miss out on your part of the settlement.