Bench Trial Opens June 9 on FTC’s Challenge to Amazon’s Prime Enrollment Practices

U.S. District Judge John Chun for Western Washington in Seattle ordered that a 10-day bench trial will begin June 9 on the FTC’s allegations that Amazon for years has knowingly duped millions of consumers into unknowingly enrolling in its Amazon Prime service, said a clerk’s minute order Friday (docket 2:23-cv-00932). The FTC alleges that Amazon used manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface “dark patterns” to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions. Jan. 10 is the deadline for completing discovery in the case, said the order. The FTC’s original complaint, which the agency amended Sept. 20 to add new defendants and details (see 2309200069), was filed a year ago.