Amazon Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Advertised Subscribe & Save Discounts Are ‘Bait and Switch Tactic’

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Amazon misleadingly induces consumers to sign up for its Subscribe & Save program by touting low prices on the initial sale of certain eligible products only to raise the prices of those items for subsequent purchases once a consumer is locked into a subscription.

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The 34-page lawsuit says that Amazon purports that Subscribe & Save members can save up to 15 percent when they sign up for recurring deliveries of eligible products they use regularly, with prices touted as substantially lower than those offered by third-party competitors.

However, the class action suit says that consumers in the program often end up paying more for subsequent purchases than the then-current Subscribe & Save price, including on transactions with the same seller. As the suit tells it, a consumer would often pay less for a recurringly bought item if they canceled their Subscribe & Save membership and “then started a new one for the exact same product,” even if the seller did not change.

Importantly, the case says, Amazon reserves the right to change the Subscribe & Save benefits at its sole discretion, including the discount amounts and eligibility used to determine discount amounts, at any time. Subsequent recurrent purchases of an item “will be allocated at Amazon’s discretion to one or more sellers,” the suit says.

Despite these disclosures, which the case claims are “not prominently displayed to customers,” Amazon’s marketing leaves customers with the impression that they are getting a discounted price by signing up for a subscription and that Amazon will continuously monitor prices to ensure that their subsequent purchases are made with the best-priced sellers, the lawsuit alleges.

“By inducing consumers to enroll in a subscription model, Amazon causes consumers to forego the opportunity—and normal consumer behavior—to obtain the lowest price available at the time of purchase,” the case emphasizes.

The complaint adds that while Amazon sends subscription members email updates before each Subscribe & Save order is fulfilled, the emails continue to deceive consumers by creating the false impression that the subscription price is the best price on offer.

The complaint refers to a report issued by the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, which found that Amazon employed predatory pricing strategies. Per the suit, the report noted that “once a customer is locked in, they are less likely to change their behavior even when Amazon’s pricing is not competitive.”

Per the case, Amazon exploits consumers’ expectations to receive the best offer while masking secretive price increases, taking advantage of “consumer inertia”—psychological biases that play a critical role in a consumer’s apparent commitment to a membership, product or brand, even when cheaper options exist. The end result, according to the suit, is that shoppers “spend more, not less.”

The plaintiffs allege that they joined Subscribe & Save in February 2024 and paid a discounted price of $16.60 for a bag of Lavazza coffee, compared to the one-time purchase price of $19.53, with the reasonable belief that the price would stay the same and was not “artificially reduced.”

The filing says that the price of the coffee began to creep upward with each recurring order, but that Amazon’s email communications with the plaintiffs failed to give the consumers a “genuine opportunity” to seek better prices both on the Amazon marketplace and from other retailers, even when third-party sellers offered the product for significantly less. By October 2024, the complaint relays, the price of the product was $33.75 per order, with the 15 percent discount bringing the final price to $28.69. During this period, the same product was offered by a third-party seller for $25.90, indicating that Amazon was not offering the most competitive price for Subscribe & Save members as previously represented, the lawsuit reads. 

The Amazon Subscribe & Save class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States who enrolled in Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program and purchased eligible items within the relevant limitations period.

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