Amazon starts Prime payouts from $2.5 billion settlement – here's how the refunds work and when you might get one

• Amazon is now paying out refunds as part of its $2.5 billion settlement
• $1.5 billion of that is going to eligible Prime subscribers in the US
• It's the automatic refunds which are happening now, with manual claims set to be actioned in 2026

Amazon has started the process of paying out refunds to Prime subscribers who are eligible to claim a share of the $2.5 billion settlement the retail giant previously agreed with the Federal Trade Commission.

As we reported last month, $1.5 billion of that settlement is money that's to be paid back to affected customers in the US (and the remaining $1 billion is a civil penalty, the biggest one ever exacted by the FTC, in fact).

NBC News highlighted that Amazon began making automatic payments to eligible Prime customers earlier in November, and that these payouts will ...