Amazon Prime refunds: more people qualify, up to $200

A federal court has approved changes that will send Amazon Prime refunds to millions more people, raise the most anyone can be paid from $51 to $200, and end the need to file a claim. The FTC announced the revised order on September 17, 2026, a year after the underlying case settled.

The case behind the refunds

The FTC sued Amazon alleging it enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and knowingly made it difficult to cancel, violating the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act. Amazon settled in September 2025 for $2.5 billion: up to $1.5 billion in redress to consumers harmed by the enrollment and cancellation practices, plus a $1 billion civil penalty. As of September 2026, Amazon had issued more than $845 million of that redress.

What changed

This week, a federal court approved a joint motion from the FTC and Amazon revising the order to accelerate and expand future payments. Three things change:

• More people qualify. The original order paid up to $51 to consumers who used fewer than 10 Prime benefits, such as free shipping or Prime Video, in a one-year period. The revised order adds automatic payments for people who used between 11 and 20 benefits in a year, starting October 1, 2026.
• The cap is higher. The maximum anyone can receive rises from $51 to $200 total.
• Nothing has to be claimed. Every future payment, to newly eligible consumers and to a possible later top-up for people already paid, is automatic. There is no form, no notice to respond to and no paperwork Amazon requires.

"The revised order will ensure more consumers who were harmed by Amazon's deceptive enrollment and cancellation practices benefit from the FTC's historic settlement," said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Who qualifies

The FTC’s page sets three conditions, and all three must be met. You are an Amazon Prime customer in the United States. Between June 23, 2019 and June 23, 2025 you signed up through a “challenged enrollment flow”, meaning the universal Prime decision page, the shipping selection page, single page checkout or the Prime Video enrollment flow, or you tried to cancel through the online cancellation flow and could not. And you used no more than 20 Prime benefits, counting free Prime Music and Prime Video, in any 12-month period after you enrolled.

Who gets paid, and when

Consumers who used 11 to 20 Prime benefits in a one-year period, and who were not covered by the earlier phases of the settlement, begin receiving automatic payments on October 1, 2026, by Venmo, PayPal or mailed check. Amazon began sending payments in November 2025, and the FTC says it will keep paying eligible customers through April 2027. Each payment expires 60 days after it is issued, so one that arrives should be accepted promptly.

A second, conditional round follows. If the payments accepted under the current round do not reach a required threshold by February 2027, Amazon will send an additional automatic payment of up to $149 to consumers who already accepted a payment under the settlement, bringing their total to $200. That round, if it is needed, starts by April 2027.

Amazon administers the program; the FTC does not contact consumers directly about it, and points anyone who needs help with a payment to the administrator at admin@SubscriptionMembershipSettlement.com or 1-888-999-8094. The agency repeats the same warning it gives for every refund it oversees: nobody from the FTC or Amazon will ask for money, a bank password or a gift card to release a payment, and a message that does is not real, whatever it claims. How FTC refund programs work explains the process this case follows, and the FTC refunds tracker carries this program alongside the others currently paying out.