• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 12, 2025

Citing recent resignations, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday asked a federal judge to delay an upcoming trial against Amazon over its alleged use of “dark patterns” to dupe people into signing up for Prime subscriptions, and thwarting cancellation attempts.

FTC attorney Jonathan Cohen reportedly told U.S. District Court Judge John Chun in Seattle that the agency was in a “dire resource situation” due to recent resignations and a hiring freeze, according to The New York Post.

“We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on our case team,” Cohen said, according to CNBC.

Chun directed the agency to put its request in writing by Friday, according to court records.

The judge had previously set a trial date for September.

The FTC's request comes in a battle dating to June 2023, when the agency sued Amazon for allegedly using “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs” to trick customers into enrolling in Prime -- a $13 a month subscription service that offers discounts, free delivery of many items, and access to streaming video.

An Amazon spokesperson previously said the FTC's claims “are false on the facts and the law,” and that the company makes it “clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership.”

The allegations largely focused on Amazon's website design. For instance, the FTC alleged that Amazon's interface required shoppers to say whether they will enroll in Prime before completing a purchase. The enrollment page said Prime subscribers would receive benefits like free shipping; the page also disclosed that subscriptions would continue until cancelled, but in small print, according to the agency.

Though Amazon offered shoppers the ability to make a purchase without signing up for Prime, that choice was “less prominent” than the enrollment option, the FTC said in its complaint. The agency added that Amazon knew since at least 2018 that some people couldn't find the link to decline enrollment.

The FTC also asserted that Amazon "knowingly complicated the cancellation process.”

Amazon unsuccessfully petitioned Chun to dismiss the suit at an early stage. The company contended that even if the allegations were proven true, they wouldn't show that the company deceived Prime members about subscriptions.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau backed Amazon, arguing in a friend-of-the-court brief that the “dark patterns” allegations were largely based on “a handful of benign, ordinary statements made in the course of Amazon marketing the benefits of its Prime membership and 'design elements' chosen by Amazon, such as the use of color to draw a consumer’s attention, to communicate Amazon’s message that Prime is valuable.

The IAB also said the FTC “appears to seek to punish, ban, and regulate speech that it has not -- and cannot -- allege is untruthful by applying the label 'dark patterns.'”

Chun rejected those arguments last May, ruling that the allegations, if true, could support the claims that Amazon failed to clearly disclose key terms about Prime subscriptions.