Arizona says Amazon made Prime members click 6 times to cancel. Now it will refund $3M while denying wrongdoing

Now, Amazon and the AG have reached a settlement, with Amazon agreeing to pay $3 million, which the AG will distribute to “eligible consumers,” according to a report from the Arizona Daily Star.

Amazon “denies that it ever engaged in activity that violates any Arizona law,” in the settlement, the Daily Star report says.

‘Intentionally confusing and misleading’’

In a release announcing the suit in 2024, the AG alleged that Amazon’s cancellation process, “is intentionally confusing and misleading, a strategy Amazon tellingly called Project Iliad.”

“Amazon’s cancellation process allegedly required users to navigate a complicated and manipulative interface with skewed wording, confusing choices, and repeated nudging. Such methods, known as ‘dark patterns,’ exploit cognitive biases to influence and manipulate consumer choices,” the release said.

According to the release, Amazon’s Project Iliad tactics were allegedly successful in reducing Prime subscriptions to the tune of 14%.

On top of the $3 million, the settlement will also see Amazon pay $1.5 million for the state’s legal fees, $1.5 million into a consumer education and fraud investigation fund for AG’s office and $1 million in donations to charities selected by the AG, according to the Daily Star.

The lawsuit alleged that until 2023, consumers had to navigate through at least six steps to cancel a Prime membership, the Daily Star said.

Richie Taylor, spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, told the Daily Star that it was not clear whether the $3 million payout would cover all affected Arizonans. “Our goal is to get as much back to consumers as possible,” he said.

The AG’s suit claimed that “Amazon values its Prime members not only for the subscription fees it collects from them [...] but also because Prime members spend more than twice as much as other Amazon customers, averaging about $1,400 per year.”

FTC settlement

In 2025, Amazon settled a lawsuit that the Federal Trade Commission filed in 2023 alleging “that Amazon enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent, and knowingly made it difficult for consumers to cancel.”

Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion in the settlement, with $1.5 billion of that to be distributed to consumers.

It also agreed to change its practices, including “a clear and conspicuous button for customers to decline Prime,” the FTC said, stipulating that “Amazon can no longer have a button that says, ‘No, I don’t want Free Shipping.’”