The Register by Iain Thomson 9/21/2023
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has named three senior Amazon.com staffers accused of approving tactics designed to confuse people into signing up for the online souk's Prime loyalty scheme, then making it hard for them to unsubscribe.
Neil Lindsay, former head of the Prime team; current boss Russell Grandinetti; and Prime VP Jamil Ghani were all named in an amended complaint in an ongoing court case brought by the FTC against Amazon that alleges the e-tail giant knowingly duped customers into signing up for Prime delivery service and deliberately made it hard for them to cancel a subscription.
The amended filing includes excerpts from an internal Amazon newsletter that states: "The issue of accidental Prime-sign ups is well documented." Prosecutors go on to allege that Amazon execs not only understood netizens were being signed up for Prime, but also created a "labyrinthine" cancellation process that it named "Iliad" – a name taken from an epic poem by Homer.
Despite internal warnings about the obtuse process, the Amazon execs declined to change the system for fear of causing a "shock" to the business plan.
More:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/ftc_amazon_prime_amended_complaint/
