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> The lawsuit said that under substantial pressure from the FTC, Amazon changed its cancellation process in April but that "violations are ongoing" and that it

> The lawsuit said that under substantial pressure from the FTC, Amazon changed its cancellation process in April but that "violations are ongoing" and that it still "requires five clicks on desktop and six on mobile for consumers to cancel from Amazon.com." They clearly state here, that it was significantly worse before. The suit can be seen here: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.323520/gov.uscourts.wawd.323520.1.0_1.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.32... The lawsuit states: 114: "The Iliad Flow required consumers intending to cancel to navigate a four-page, six-click, fifteen-option cancellation process. In contrast, customers could enroll in Prime with one or two clicks." https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-custo... https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-project-iliad-juiciest-highlights-ftc-prime-lawsuit-2023-6?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-project-iliad-juicies... > Amazon intentionally drew out the process of canceling a Prime membership under a project code-named "Iliad," according to internal documents obtained by Insider. Related stuff from the EU: > Amazon changed its process for canceling Prime subscriptions last summer after pressure from the European Commission and national consumer watchdogs. The company introduced a simplified two-click process. Article below has pictures from a previous EU case in 2022. https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/5/23195019/amazon-prime-cancellation-europe-european-union-dark-patterns https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/5/23195019/amazon-prime-canc...

iLoveOncall 3y ago
Oh no! 5 clicks, can you imagine?!
- Prickle 3y ago
  I actually think the 15 options part is slightly worse. Convoluted menus tend to discourage interaction. Any sort of psychological traps to prevent cancellation should be explicitly illegal. And hey, if it wasn't a big deal, why did Amazon create project Illiad in the first place?
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
  why not 1 or 2? or an amount equal to the number needed to sign up? if the intention isn't to retain the customer through dark patterns, why is Amazon doing it?
  - iLoveOncall 3y ago
    It actually takes 3 clicks now: Account > Prime > Cancel your subscription. Done. 1 click is simply a nonsensical expectation. There's not a single service that allows turning off a subscription in one click from their homepage. Not even 2. 3 clicks to cancel a paid subscription is absolutely reasonable, especially when there is absolutely no obfuscation of any type. There is no dark pattern, it took me literally 5 seconds to go from homepage to cancellation button.
    - ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
      did you actually go through with cancellation, and did the full process end to end take 3 clicks? or are you just counting how many clicks it takes to get to the button that starts the process? the article this post is on says the number of clicks was far more than 3, end to end, so just count those, and compare with the number needed to sign up there's no reason the cancellation should take longer than signup, especially if Amazon properly warns and confirms when you want to sign up like they do when you want to cancel.

iLoveOncall 3y ago

Oh no! 5 clicks, can you imagine?!

Prickle 3y ago
I actually think the 15 options part is slightly worse. Convoluted menus tend to discourage interaction. Any sort of psychological traps to prevent cancellation should be explicitly illegal. And hey, if it wasn't a big deal, why did Amazon create project Illiad in the first place?
ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
why not 1 or 2? or an amount equal to the number needed to sign up? if the intention isn't to retain the customer through dark patterns, why is Amazon doing it?
- iLoveOncall 3y ago
  It actually takes 3 clicks now: Account > Prime > Cancel your subscription. Done. 1 click is simply a nonsensical expectation. There's not a single service that allows turning off a subscription in one click from their homepage. Not even 2. 3 clicks to cancel a paid subscription is absolutely reasonable, especially when there is absolutely no obfuscation of any type. There is no dark pattern, it took me literally 5 seconds to go from homepage to cancellation button.
  - ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
    did you actually go through with cancellation, and did the full process end to end take 3 clicks? or are you just counting how many clicks it takes to get to the button that starts the process? the article this post is on says the number of clicks was far more than 3, end to end, so just count those, and compare with the number needed to sign up there's no reason the cancellation should take longer than signup, especially if Amazon properly warns and confirms when you want to sign up like they do when you want to cancel.