Amazon to Pay $2.5 billion to Consumers

 Amazon has paid $2.5 billion to settle claims it enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent, and made it very difficult to cancel enrollment.

Under the settlement, Amazon will pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $1 billion in civil penalties and $1.5 billion in refunds to consumers "harmed by their deceptive Prime enrollment practices."

An estimated 35 million consumers have been impacted by Amazon's unsolicited Prime enrollment. According to the FTC, affected consumers will be receiving a check for $51.

Amazon is getting away cheaply. Many of the 35 million consumers will keep their accounts as they receive free shipping on all Amazon purchases and the Prime streaming platform, among other benefits.