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If youve ever tried to end your Amazon Prime subscription, you may have found yourself embroiled in a disorienting multistep process that felt more like a choose-your-own-adventure than a simple cancellation. The Federal Trade Commission is now taking Amazon to court over that cumbersome user journey, alleging that it was by design. The FTC claims that Amazon spent years knowingly trapping its customers in an endless Prime subscriptionmaking cancellation so confusing that, per the agency, Amazon named the process the Iliad Flow after Homers 16,000-line epic poem. The FTCs lawsuit, which was first filed in 2023, alleges that Amazon tricked more than 40 million customers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions. It lays out in painstaking detail how Amazon knowingly used dark patterns, user interface tactics designed to dupe or confuse users, including its Iliad Flow, to coerce enrollment in Prime without their consent and to make it especially difficult to cancel Prime subscriptions. As the trial kicks off, we take a deep dive into the Iliad Flow scheme at the center of the lawsuit, and how Amazon has capitalized off of similar dark patterns in the past. The Amazon case as potential precedent Dark patterns have become typical industry practice as major retailers and Big Tech companies use them to boost their bottom lines, according to David Carroll, a professor at the Parsons School of Design in New York who studies dark patterns and user data protection. But Carroll suggests the Amazon trial could set a new precedent. The FTCs challenge is one of the broadest attempts to fight back against dark patterns that hes ever seen, and it could have major ripple effects for how other companies design their user interface. Amazon is a unique sort of monopoly, so it has the ability to get away with the most egregious forms of dark patterns, which then sets the standard for the rest of the industry. Because if Amazon does it, why can’t we? Carroll says. [Screenshot: FTC.gov] The FTCs updated court filing details exactly how some of those dark patterns functioned for Amazon between 2016 and 2023. For non-Prime customers, it explains, the company has a history of offering multiple Prime upsells before the final transaction. One page included a blue link near the bottom left of the screen, which in 2018 read No thanks, I do not want fast, free shipping, and in February 2020 read No thanks, I do not want fast, FREE delivery. This language is an example of what Carroll calls confirmshaming, or guilt-tripping designed to tug on users emotions. [Screenshot: FTC.gov] Amazons dark pattern pice de résistance was the Iliad Flow, the Prime-cancellation process that the FTC says Amazon changed in 2023 after the agency applied “substantial pressure to the company. Per a Business Insider report in June 2023, multiple leaked internal documents showed that the cancellation process was dubbed Iliad by Amazon, and revealed that at some point in 2017 the Iliad Flow led to a 14% drop in Prime cancellations as fewer members navigated to the final cancellation page. Much like its namesake poem, the Iliad Flow involved a winding, complicated journey filled with frustrating stops and befuddling detours. The convoluted journey indicates clearly how the flow represents a business-first rather than a user-first approach. Prime subscribers are some of Amazons most valuable assets. Its estimated that Prime subscribers, who tend to buy more on the site than the average user, number somewhere close to 200 million. In 2024, those subscriptions netted Amazon $4 million. That means Amazon has a lot of incentive to keep Prime subscribers aroundand, Carroll explains, its intricate network of dark patterns is an example of using extensive A/B testing to engineer a system designed to keep customers trapped in its web. Business-first dark patterns To cancel via the Iliad Flow (which the FTC referenced in its official report Primes Four-Page, Six-Click, Fifteen-Option Iliad Flow) a consumer had to first locate it, which Amazon made difficult.” Things only got more confusing from there. A users first trial was to make it through the initial cancellation page. Here, they were directed to look back at their previous Prime purchases and encouraged to click hyperlinks to services like Prime Video through calls to action like “Start shopping todays deals!” At the bottom of the page, they would be presented with three otions: Remind Me Later, Keep My Benefits, and Continue to Cancel. Every option except Continue to Cancel would boot users out of their intended flow and take them back to square one. [Screenshot: FTC.gov] Those who chose Continue to Cancel were funneled on to page two, where they were presented with discounted pricing options and exclusive offers before once again seeing the same three-button prompt. And, like on the first page, Continue to Cancel was the only option that executed the user’s original intention. On the third page of the Iliad Flow, Amazon showed consumers five different options, only the last of which, “End Now,” actually canceled the users Prime membership. Any of the other four buttons immediately ejected them from their intended process. When you go through this, you see how, not only is the Amazon ‘Iliad Flow’ designed to achieve its effect of preventing the unsubscription and to uphold the original nonconsensual enrollment, but the company internally knows that what it’s doing is, as the FTC says, injuring customers, Carroll says. Yet, he adds, theres so much incentive for them to continue the practice. [Screenshot: FTC.gov] How the FTC challenge to Iliad Flow could change e-comm Dark patterns like the Iliad Flow help Amazon bring new Prime customers in and keep them around as long as possible. In many ways, Amazons success has served as the blueprint for other online retailers to design their own dark-pattern webs. The FTCs current challenge could show the broader retail climate that dark patterns are no longer going unnoticed. The FTCs model as a regulatory system is to make examples of companies to dissuade other companies. The whole idea is, punish one so that the others also start behaving better, Carrol says. Because Amazon is such a massive target, I think we can’t underestimate the potential downstream effects. If the FTC wins this current case, Carroll says, it may send a message to smaller companies that theres legitimacy to the consumer protection argument around dark patterns. It could even show that what Carroll describes as internal discussions being diabolical about designing dark patterns are, quite simply, bad for business.
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E-Commerce
After a contentious week for free speech and Hollywood, Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to the air last nightwell, at least in many regions across the United States. ABC affiliate stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group refused to air the show, and President Trump has railed against the late-night comedians return. But this hasnt stopped ABCs owner Disneywhich received much criticism for pulling Jimmy Kimmel from the air last weekfrom posting Kimmels returning opening monologue for all to see. Heres what you need to know and how you can watch Kimmels opening monologue in full. Dozens of ABC stations chose not to air Kimmel Despite Jimmy Kimmel returning to the public airwaves last night, Americans who live in regions whose local ABC affiliates are owned by Nexstar Media Group or Sinclair didnt get the chance to watch the shows return live TV broadcast. Thats because Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group, which combined own around 70 ABC stations, refused to air the show. In a statement, Sinclair announced ahead of time that it wouldnt be airing the return last night, while noting that Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the shows potential return. Nexstar issued its own statement ahead of Kimmel’s return, stating that it stands by its decision to preempt the show pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve. The decision by Sinclair and Nexstar not to run Kimmel’s return meant that millions of Americans never had the chance to watch the late-night show hosts return to the small screen live. Yet while this may have disheartened many Americans who live in those ABC affiliate areas, at least one American was likely happy with Sinclair and Nexstars decision: the president. Trump threatens ABC as Kimmel returns Last night, President Trump, as could be expected, let his thoughts be known about Disney and ABC choosing to let Kimmel back on the air. I cant believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back, the president posted on his Truth Social social media network. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Trump continued: Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, whos not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. But the president didnt stop there. He went on to claim that Kimmel is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think were going to test ABC out on this, the president continued. Lets see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings. How to watch Jimmy Kimmels return opening monologue The presidents displeasure hasnt stopped ABC or Disney from sharing Kimmels return far and wide. The companies have now posted the opening monologue from last nights show on the official Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube channel, allowing anyone who could not watch the show last night to watch the hosts commentary. In the clip, Kimmel addresses issues ranging from the death of Charlie Kirk to free speech in America. As of early Wednesday, the clip had almost 7 million views and more than 51,000 comments, including from many YouTube users who said the show had been blocked by their local TV station. Many others claimed to be watching the clip from overseas. You can watch Kimmels opening monologue here. The clip is also embedded directly below.
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E-Commerce
Aldi is finally putting its name on its products. The grocer, which runs nearly 3,200 stores in the U.S., tells Fast Company that it’s launching its first-ever namesake brand and putting its name on the front of its private-label product packaging for the first time. It’s no small task: More than 90% of Aldi’s products are private label. Generic brands have found new life as customers have traded down from national brands to cheaper private labels to beat inflation. In 2024, retailers sold a record $270 billion worth of private-label products in the U.S., according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association. For Aldi, though, private-label brands don’t just represent a growing slice of the pie, they’re the whole pie. [Image: courtesy Aldi] “Private label is the core of what we do,” says Scott Patton, Aldis chief commercial officer. “I’m not going to say we invented it; I would say we’ve perfected it.” While the grocer has seen a 7.1% year-over-year increase in store traffic this year, it also has a problem: Too many customers who bought Aldi private brands didn’t know those brands were exclusive to the chain. “The overall sentiment was, on average, customers didn’t know that was an Aldi brand,” says Kristy Reitz, the grocer’s director of brand and design. “Now if they shop us a little less frequently, they think they can find that brand elsewhere, and in fact it’s a private-label brand to Aldi.” [Image: courtesy Aldi] Aldi turned to multiple creative partners to handle the job, including Favorite Child, Pearlfisher, Contrast, Equator, and Sun Strategy. The goal was to make the packaging recognizable, but it also needed to be flexible. “If every package shows up in this very tight design system and in the exact same way, it would look kind of boring,” Reitz says. “It would be harder to shop.” [Image: courtesy Aldi] The company’s new portfolio of private-label packaging includes “an ALDI original” endorsement that will appear on the front for brands like Simply Nature and Specially Selected, while some brands will be replaced with the Aldi name, the company says. Aldi’s competitors have already responded to the rise of private labeling by upgrading their generic packaging, like Target’s Up&Up and CVS’s Well Market. Walmart launched Bettergoods, an altogether new private-label brand, to expand its retail reach. [Image: courtesy Aldi] Aldi says its packaging overhaul wasn’t done as a response to that trend, or in response to litigation, like the suit filed by Mondelez International in May, which accused the grocery chain of ripping off its packaging for legacy brands like Oreo and Chips Ahoy. “This has actually been a project we’ve been working on for a couple of years,” Reitz says. But it does represent a concerning development for the company’s competitors. By finally putting its name on its own product packaging, Aldi is making the most of its advantage as a private-label grocer at a moment when customers are more interested than ever in shopping generic.
Category:
E-Commerce
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