Amazon to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC claims re Amazon Prime signups

Last week, I posted about a Western District of Washington decision granting partial summary judgment to the FTC on claims against Amazon relating to the enrollment flow for Amazon Prime subscriptions. A trial began earlier this week on the remaining claims, but, today, the FTC announced a $2.5 billion settlement, including $1.5 billion to be distributed to customers and a $1 billion civil penalty–the largest ever for a FTC rule violation. Although the case was commenced under previous FTC Chair Lina Khan, and arose out of an investigation during the previous administration, current FTC Chair Ferguson is trumpeting the settlement as a “historic” victory of “the Trump-Vance FTC.” It is unclear how much the decision to settle resulted out of a desire to resolve strong legal claims on behalf of consumers versus a desire to curry political favor with the Presidential administration–particularly given the Supreme Court’s recent rejection of the concept that the FTC is an independent agency.