01:35 PM EDT, 09/25/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Amazon ( AMZN ) has reached a $2.5 billion settlement to resolve allegations that it misled customers into signing up for its Prime subscription-based service, the US Federal Trade Commission said Thursday.

The antitrust regulator sued the e-commerce giant more than two years ago for allegedly enrolling millions of customers in Prime without consent and making it difficult to cancel the subscription.

Amazon ( AMZN ) agreed to pay $1 billion in civil penalty and return $1.5 billion to an estimated 35 million affected customers, the FTC said in a statement.

"The evidence showed that Amazon ( AMZN ) used sophisticated subscription traps designed to manipulate consumers into enrolling in Prime, and then made it exceedingly hard for consumers to end their subscription," FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said.

Amazon ( AMZN ) confirmed the settlement in a statement, without mentioning a monetary amount.

"Amazon ( AMZN ) and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers," the company said in a statement published on its website.

The FTC ordered Amazon ( AMZN ) make "meaningful changes" to the Prime enrollment and cancellation flows. The changes include providing a visible button for customers to decline Prime and making it easy for them to cancel the service, according to the FTC.

"We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world," Amazon ( AMZN ) said. "We will continue to do so, and look forward to what we'll deliver for Prime members in the coming years."

Shares of Amazon ( AMZN ) were down 0.6% intraday Thursday.

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