Technologies

Amazon Got Busted for ‘Tricking’ You Into Prime. Now It’s Paying Out $2.5 Billion

Here’s how to make sure you get the portion of the settlement that you’re owed.

If you’ve ever felt tricked into an Amazon Prime subscription or found it almost impossible to cancel, you’re hardly alone. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission agrees that the process has been anything but simple. After filing a lawsuit against Amazon in 2023, the retailer was just hit with a massive $2.5 billion settlement

That historic number isn’t just a slap on the wrist. The FTC says $1.5 billion is being set aside to repay eligible subscribers, with the other $1 billion going to a civil penalty. While Amazon didn’t admit to any wrongdoing, it is being forced to make some changes. The settlement demands a «clear and conspicuous» option to decline Prime during checkout and, finally, a simpler cancellation process.

«Amazon and our executives have always followed the law, and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,» Mark Blafkin, Amazon senior manager, said in a statement. «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.»

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Why did the FTC file a lawsuit against Amazon?

The FTC filed suit against Amazon accused the company of using «dark patterns» to nudge people into Prime subscriptions and then making it too hard to cancel. The FTC maintained Amazon was in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.

«Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions,» the FTC complaint states.

Who’s eligible for Amazon’s payout?

Amazon’s legal settlement is limited to customers who enrolled in Amazon Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025. It’s also restricted to customers who subscribed to Prime using a «challenged enrollment flow» or who enrolled in Prime through any method but were unsuccessful in canceling their memberships.

The FTC called out specific enrollment pages, including Prime Video enrollment, the Universal Prime Decision page, the Shipping Option Select page and the Single Page Checkout. To qualify for a payout, claimants must also not have used more than 10 Amazon Prime benefits in any 12-month period.

Customers who signed up via those challenged processes and did not use more than three Prime benefits within one year will be paid automatically by Amazon within 90 days. Other eligible Amazon customers will need to file a claim, and Amazon is required to send notices to those people within 30 days of making its automatic payments.

Customers who did not use a challenged sign-up process but instead were unable to cancel their memberships will also need to file claims for payment.

How big will the Amazon payments be?

Payouts to eligible Amazon claimants will be limited to a maximum of $51. That amount could be reduced depending on the number of Amazon Prime benefits you used while subscribed to the service. Those benefits include free two-day shipping, watching shows or movies on Prime Video or Whole Foods grocery discounts.

Customers who qualify for the payments should receive them by Dec. 24.Customers outside the US aren’t eligible for the payout.

Technologies

Spotify Brings Wrapped Energy Year-Round With Friend-Sharing Stats

The music service introduced new ways for music nerds to share their listening habits with friends.

It can be a long wait for Spotify Wrapped, the end-of-year promotion that allows Spotify users to view and share their listening habits. Now, users can keep an eye on those stats daily, plus share their listening habits with friends.

You can view your Spotify usage statistics every 24 hours and share your updates via social media services, such as Instagram Notes or Spotify Messages. The new share icon gives you access to eight different services where you can post your stats.

Every week, you’ll get updates on your top artists and songs from the past month, and Spotify will recommend new playlists. The app also gives you a «special highlight» based on a specific artist or song.

To access your personal musical data, click on your profile in the top left corner of the app and scroll down to «listening stats.»

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The new features are somewhat similar to Spotify Wrapped, the service’s annual end-of-year review of users’ listening habits, which is designed to be shared. Every year, Spotify adds extra details to Wrapped, such as assigning users a listening personality or a city that supposedly reflects their music tastes. It’s been the most popular way for Spotify users to view and share their music listening in the past. A number of third-party services do the same thing, including Volt.fm.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services

Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service, offering 100 million tracks and serving more than 713 million users. In addition to its $12-per-month subscription service, Spotify also offers a free, ad-supported option.

Technologies

Wordle Gets Personal: You Can Now Make and Share Your Own Puzzles

If you’re a Wordle obsessive, you can now make your own inside joke puzzles to send to friends.

Wordle’s an immensely popular New York Times word game (we post the answers daily), but it’s not the most personal game in the world. Answers such as GUISE and PERIL are tricky, but generic. Now, Wordle fans who have ever dreamed of making their own puzzles can test their friends and family by creating their own Wordle creations up to seven letters in length.

No surprise, you have to be a New York Times Games or All Access Subscriber to use this feature. If you are, you’ll find the Create a Puzzle option available from the top menu above today’s Wordle. While you must be a subscriber to create your own personalized puzzle, you can share it with anyone — they only need the link, not a subscription, to complete your Wordle.

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Enter a word, and the site will tell you if it is available. Real Wordle limits you to five-letter words, but the puzzle-making feature lets you choose words between 4 and 7 letters.

The usual dictionary rules apply, and so curse words, some pet names, and obscure inside jokes are essentially out. If your cat is named TANGO, that’s there, but RINGO is not an option. You can drop a proposal with a single word like MARRY, but MARRYME will get rejected since that’s two separate words.

Word chosen, you can then fill out your name and add an optional hint, and the feature will generate your puzzle with a link you can send around. Unlike standard puzzles, your puzzle doesn’t appear to reset after a day, so whoever you send it to doesn’t need to rush to solve it.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 8, #411

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 411 for Saturday, Nov. 8.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tricky one. The theme of the purple category is also a word hidden among the answers, but of course, it doesn’t end up in the purple group. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Brawl.

Green group hint: The Steel City.

Blue group hint: They once played in Oakland.

Purple group hint: Not always made of cardboard.