What's Going On With Amazon Stock Wednesday

Amazon.Com, Inc AMZN stock is trading lower Wednesday since the Federal Trade Commission slapped a case against the company for allegedly duping Prime customers.

The FTC on Wednesday prosecuted Amazon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington for its years-long effort to enroll consumers into its Prime program without their consent while making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions to Prime.

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The FTC alleged that Amazon had conned millions of consumers with manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.

Amazon also knowingly problematized the revocation process for Prime subscribers who sought to end their membership.

Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made it easier for users to cancel Prime as those changes adversely affected Amazon’s bottom line. 

The FTC charged that Amazon implemented a cancellation process to deter consumers from successfully unsubscribing from Prime. 

During Amazon’s online checkout process, the company flashed numerous opportunities to subscribe to Amazon Prime at $14.99/month. In many cases, the option to purchase items on Amazon without subscribing to Prime was more difficult for consumers to locate, the report says. 

In some cases, the button presented to consumers to complete their transaction did not clearly state that in choosing that option, they also agreed to join Prime for a recurring subscription.

Consumers who attempted to cancel Prime were faced with multiple steps to accomplish the task of withdrawing.

Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 1.00% at $124.52 on the last check Wednesday.

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