The Federal Trade Commission said this week that Amazon will speed up and expand payments under its $2.5 billion Amazon Prime settlement, after a federal court approved a revised order that increases the number of consumers who can receive refunds and makes future payments automatic.
The changes matter because the settlement was built to return money to people the FTC said were harmed by Prime enrollment and cancellation practices. Under the revised order, the maximum payment cap rises to $200 from $51, and consumers will no longer need to file claims or submit extra paperwork to receive future redress.
The move comes after Amazon already issued more than $845 million in redress payments as of September 2026, part of a settlement reached in September 2025 that required up to $1.5 billion in consumer redress and a $1 billion civil penalty. The FTC said the earlier case resolved allegations that Amazon enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without consent and made it difficult for them to cancel.
Christopher Mufarrige, speaking for the agency, said the revised order will ensure more consumers harmed by Amazon’s deceptive enrollment and cancellation practices benefit from the FTC’s historic settlement. He also said the action shows the FTC’s commitment to making companies return money to consumers harmed by unlawful and deceptive business practices.
The practical effect is straightforward: more consumers now qualify, the ceiling on each payment is higher, and the money will move without a claims process that can slow down relief. That is a meaningful change in a settlement of this size, especially one that was meant to reach consumers who were enrolled without consent and then faced added friction when they tried to leave.
The court-approved revision does not say when the next round of payments will go out, but it does remove one of the biggest barriers between the settlement and the people it was designed to help. For consumers still waiting, the question is no longer whether Amazon will pay automatically; it is how quickly the expanded pool will be reached.
