FTC scores key summary judgment win against Amazon before US 'dark patterns' trial
( September 18, 2025, 03:16 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: The US Federal Trade Commission won a key summary judgment ruling against Amazon days before the start of a trial over whether the e-commerce giant violated the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), with a federal judge in Seattle granting summary judgment to the FTC that Amazon violated ROSCA because Amazon collected consumers’ billing information before it disclosed the material terms of its Prime subscription service to them. "This practice violates the plain text of ROSCA," US District Judge John H. Chun wrote in a ruling that also found ROSCA violations by two of the individual Amazon executives, Jamil Ghani and Neil Lindsay, named by the FTC. "No reasonable jury could find in favor of Amazon when provided with this evidence. Defendants try to avoid this uncomplicated reasoning by arguing that Amazon obtains consent to use a customer’s billing information at the same time they disclose Prime’s material terms. But this argument is at odds with the plain language of ROSCA." Chun's order found that Ghani and Lindsay had a "high degree of involvement" in Amazon's Prime cancellation system, saying the evidence "also supports the FTC’s argument that these Defendants had actual knowledge of, or were recklessly indifferent to, the alleged issues with Amazon’s [Prime cancellation] flows." The order leaves multiple outstanding issues for the trial, however.See attached document....
Prepare for tomorrow’s regulatory change, today
MLex identifies risk to business wherever it emerges, with specialist reporters across the globe providing exclusive news and deep-dive analysis on the proposals, probes, enforcement actions and rulings that matter to your organization and clients, now and in the longer term.
Know what others in the room don’t, with features including:
Daily newsletters for Antitrust, M&A, Trade, Data Privacy & Security, Technology, AI and more
Custom alerts on specific filters including geographies, industries, topics and companies to suit your practice needs
Predictive analysis from expert journalists across North America, the UK and Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific
Curated case files bringing together news, analysis and source documents in a single timeline