Eligible Amazon Prime customers can now receive as much as $200 each from Amazon’s 2025 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, up from an original cap of $51. The FTC announced the additional payments in September, and the new round began going out on 1 October 2026.
For most people there is nothing to file. The extra money is being paid automatically to customers already identified as eligible, including a top-up of up to $149 for those who received the earlier refund of up to $51. The FTC has also extended automatic payments to more Prime members than the first round covered.
Where the money comes from
The FTC sued Amazon in 2023, alleging that the company enrolled customers in Prime without clear consent and made cancelling deliberately difficult. Amazon settled in September 2025, days into a federal trial in Seattle, agreeing to pay $2.5 billion: a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in refunds to customers. Amazon did not admit wrongdoing.
The first refunds, of up to $51, went out automatically by 24 December 2025. They covered people who signed up for Prime through the sign-up pages the FTC challenged between 23 June 2019 and 23 June 2025, and who used no more than three Prime benefits in any 12-month period. A second group, those who used up to ten benefits, or who tried and failed to cancel, had to submit a claim through the settlement administrator during a window that ran through mid-2026.
Who gets the new payments
Customers who already received a first-round refund are in line for the top-up, which lifts the total towards the $200 maximum. People whose claims were approved are also covered. The newly added group is paid automatically, without a claim form.
The exact amount varies with each person’s Prime fees and usage, so not everyone will reach $200. Anyone unsure whether they are on the list can check the eligibility rules and the payment timetable on the FTC’s refund page.
How to check, and what to ignore
The FTC keeps the current details on its Amazon refunds page, ftc.gov/amazon, including who qualifies and which messages are genuine. Official settlement emails come from Amazon or the named settlement administrator. They never ask for a fee, a bank login or a Prime password before paying. Anyone who receives a message demanding payment to release a refund is looking at a scam.
The settlement also changed how Prime works for anyone who buys it now. Amazon must show the price, renewal terms and cancellation method clearly at sign-up, and must give customers a straightforward way to cancel online. If you want to leave, the cancellation path sits under Your Account and then Prime Membership.
The FTC has indicated that another round of payments may follow if money remains in the refund fund after this one. Updates will appear first on ftc.gov/amazon.
Further reading
- FTC: Amazon refunds
- FTC: Additional payments to consumers from Amazon Prime settlement (September 2026)
Image: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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