Amazon.com “Subscribe & Save” Deceptive Subscription Program Class Action

Amazon.com, Inc. has instituted a Subscribe & Save (S&S) program that the complaint for this class action alleges is “unlawfully administered.” The complaint claims the program makes use of dark patterns that trick consumers into subscribing, repeats orders at too-frequent intervals, and is difficult to cancel.

The class for this action is all individuals who, during the applicable statute of limitations period, were charged for purchases on an automatically recurring basis in connection with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program. An Illinois Subclass has been defined for those in the above class who made their purchases in Illinois.

The S&S program offers consumers discounted prices and is advertised as a way for consumers to save money, but the complaint alleges that dark patterns are used “at almost every step of the purchase process” to “exploit[] cognitive biases” and “manipulate[e] users into making decisions against their own interests.” The complaint claims that the program also uses other means deceive consumers.

“For example,” the complaint alleges, Amazon “sets the default of S&S products to automatically renew as frequent[ly] as every two weeks for expendable or consumable items such as over[-]the[-]counter medications that Amazon knows need replacement much less often.” It claims that Amazon makes what it knows are untrue statements that the products are “most commonly” bought at these short intervals.

In other cases, the complaint claims, Amazon applies the program to household appliances or other items that are not consumables and represents them as being bought regularly, even though it is not likely that anyone actually does this.

For many items, the complaint alleges, the S&S option is the default purchase option, so that buyers must notice that they will be enrolled in a subscription unless they separately select the option of a single purchase only.

The complaint also details other kinds of dark patterns used on the Amazon mobile interface.

According to the complaint, Amazon also deliberately makes cancellation difficult: “The ‘roach motel’ dark pattern offers another salient example in which cancelling a subscription or membership is significantly tougher than initiating such a transaction.” Users are told they can “cancel anytime,” but the actual process is not easy.

For one thing, the complaint alleges that Amazon “strategically omits the fact that even though a Subscribe & Save item can be shipped as quickly as the next day, a user who wishes to skip or cancel a delivery must provide at least eight days’ notice to do so.”

Pages 11 and 12 of the complaint show nine screenshots of the steps users must take to cancel an S&S subscription. The complaint alleges, “This tedious and confusing calcellation flow is not accident. Each step of the lengthy process is designed to frustrate users into abandoning their goal of cancelling before they can achieve it.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Fraud, Negligent Misrepresentation, Unjust Enrichment