Millions of Amazon Prime members are getting a refund as part of a $2.5B suit. Do you qualify?

If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you may be getting a check as part of a $2.5 billion settlement after the Federal Trade Commission said the online retail giant allegedly enrolled tens of millions of customers into the subscription without their knowledge or consent, and then made it difficult to cancel.

But whether or not you’ll get money depends on how you signed up for the service.

As part of the settlement, the company must pay $1 billion in civil penalties, and $1.5 billion back to customers. Amazon already began sending automatic refunds to certain Prime members in November and December, the FTC said, with checks still in the mail and a claim process underway.

Here’s a breakdown for Prime members of how to know if you’re eligible for an automatic payout, when you could get money, how to file a claim and more.

Which Prime members are getting a refund?

The settlement says certain Prime members are eligible for payouts if they unintentionally signed up for — or attempted to cancel — a membership through one of the following ways, between June 23 2019 and June 23, 2025. These pathways are referred to as a “Challenged Enrollment Flow:”

• The universal Prime decision page
• Shipping selection page
• Single page checkout
• Prime Video enrollment flow

Those people also have to be Amazon Prime customers in the United States, and used no more than three Prime benefits, including Prime Music, Prime Video or other similar free products, in any 12-month period following enrollment.

Do I need to file a claim?

Many customers will be eligible for an automatic payment as part of the settlement, which will be sent via Venmo or PayPal. Here’s who qualifies for that, according to the Settlement Administrator website:

• You are a U.S. consumer who signed up for Prime between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025, and
• You enrolled through a Challenged Enrollment Flow, and
• You used no more than three Prime benefits in a 12-month period from June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025

Customers who fall into this category “do not need to take any action to demonstrate their eligibility,” the website said.

There are also a group of customers who didn’t receive an automatic payment, but are still eligible to file a claim.

Starting this month, Amazon began sending notices by email and mail to those who qualify for a refund by filing a claim. The notice will contain instructions on how to file, the website said, and eligible members must file within 180 days.

You are eligible for a Claims Process Payment if:

• You are a U.S. consumer who signed up for Prime between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025, and
• You used more than three but less than ten Prime benefits in a 12-month period from June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025, and
• You unintentionally enrolled through a Challenged Enrollment Flow or tried to cancel through the online cancellation flow but were unable to do so.

When are payouts being sent, and how?

According to the FTC, Amazon started emailing customers who are eligible for an automatic refund Nov. 12. That process continued through Dec. 24, the FTC said, with automatic refunds send by Venmo or PayPal.

“Please accept your refund within 15 days,” the FTC said.

Those who prefer a check can simply ignore the email from Amazon, the FTC added.

“Once you do not claim the PayPal or Venmo payment, Amazon will mail you a check to your default shipping address listed on your Prime subscription,” the FTC said. Checks should be cashed within 60 days.

Those who receive notice to file a claim have 180 days to do so. From there, Amazon has 30 days to review each claim received.

 “Payments will follow shortly after approval of your claims form,” the administrator said.

How much could you get?

Under the settlement, eligible Prime customers will receive a refund of their Amazon Prime subscription fees, up to a maximum of $51.

More information about the settlement can be found on the FTC website, and on the settlement administrator website here.

What to know about the settlement, and Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime provides subscribers with perks that include faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods for a fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month. It’s a key and growing part of Amazon’s business, with more than 200 million members.

The FTC said Amazon deliberately made it difficult for customers to purchase an item without also subscribing to Prime. In some cases, consumers were presented with a button to complete their transactions — which did not clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime, the agency said.

Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made canceling easier, according to an FTC complaint.

Internally, Amazon called the process “Iliad,” a reference to the ancient Greek poem about the lengthy siege of Troy during the Trojan war. The process requires the customer to affirm on three pages their desire to cancel membership.

As part of the settlement terms, Amazon is prohibited from misrepresenting the terms of the subscriptions. It must fully disclose the costs to be incurred and obtain the customer’s express consent for the charge. For example, it must have a clear option for customers to accept or decline a Prime subscription being offered during a purchase, avoiding potentially confusing language such as: “No thanks, I don’t want free shipping.”

Automatic renewals for memberships must be clearly marked and the company is also required to use a cancellation process, which “must not be difficult, costly, confusing or time consuming,” according to the settlement.

Amazon said the settlement doesn’t require it to make any additional changes — only to maintain its current sign-up and cancellation process that it had put in place in recent years.

It also did not admit any wrongdoing.

“Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” spokesman Mark Blafkin in a statement to the Associated Press in September. “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.”