Amazon is automatically sending cash refunds to millions of Prime members starting this week
If you’re subscribed to Amazon Prime then you might be getting a refund after the e-commerce giant agreed to a huge $2.5 billion settlement.
And the good news is that you don’t need to do anything to be included in the claim.
This is because Amazon is automatically bringing eligible customers into a compensation program after the firm came to an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that Amazon signed people up to Prime without properly obtaining their consent and made the process of cancelling the subscription unnecessarily difficult.
From the amount agreed, $1.5 billion was set aside for payments to affected customers, while a further $1 billion was imposed as a civil penalty.
Who is eligible for Amazon Prime compensation?
In order to qualify, customers must be based in the US and must have either signed up to Prime through certain checkout processes at the center of the dispute or tried unsuccessfully to cancel their membership between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025.
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They must also have used no more than 20 Prime benefits during any 12-month period after joining, with those benefits including services such as Prime Video and Prime Music.
The maximum amount an individual customer can receive across the programme has increased from $51 to $200, following a recent modification approved by a federal court.
The FTC has also stated that eligible customers will be paid automatically, with Amazon distributing the money through PayPal, Venmo or paper checks.
Anyone receiving a payment electronically or by post will have 60 days to claim it before it expires.
The scheme is also not coming to an end immediately as more payments are expected to be distributed over the coming months, with the settlement's payout programme scheduled to run through April 2027.
Be aware of scammers contacting you over Amazon refund
Of course, with such a huge compensation amount being distributed, this has enticed scammers to attempt to infiltrate by using the program to send fake emails to Prime customers.
It’s important to stay vigilant in order to protect your own cybersecurity and be wary of anyone contacting you regarding the refund.
This is because Amazon does not require customers to do anything to receive their cash sum, so no one should be expecting a legitimate email from the firm asking them for personal information.
If someone contacts you claiming they can guarantee your payment or get it to you faster in exchange for cash, regulators say it is a scam.