Prime Day Lawsuit Alleges Four-Day Amazon Event Is ‘Rife with Fake Sales’

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Amazon Prime Day, which promises consumers some of the “best discounts of the year” on millions of items, is loaded with fake sales and misleading “percent off” claims based on false, inflated original prices. 

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The 26-page Amazon Prime Day lawsuit charges that the online retail behemoth relies upon fictional “list prices” to calculate the purported percentage-based discounts—“exclusive deals” of up to 70 percent off, for some items—available to consumers on Prime Day, which, as of this year, lasts four days. Per the case, a disclaimer on Amazon states that the retailer will display a stricken-through list price if the product was bought by consumers on Amazon at or above that price within at least the last 90 days.

The lawsuit against Amazon.com, Inc. says, however, that many of the products advertised as “Prime Day Deals” were never actually sold at the stricken-through former price within the last 90 days. Per the Prime Day class action lawsuit, the actual prior prices that Amazon should have used to calculate its percentage-off Prime Day deals are “often much lower” than shoppers are led to believe, rendering the purported discounts “either much smaller than advertised or nonexistent.” 

According to the complaint, the use of fake, inflated “list prices,” coupled with the “extreme time pressure” within the brief Prime Day window, serves to draw consumers into transactions—and influence their purchasing decisions—under the belief that certain products are truly available for a discount, with buyers ultimately paying more than they bargained for. 

Moreover, the allegedly fake Amazon Prime Day sales cause some consumers to forgo shopping around for better prices in the marketplace or waiting to buy items at a better price elsewhere, the suit states. 

Related Reading: Historic $2.5B Amazon Prime FTC Settlement Offers Major Refunds for Consumers Nationwide

As an example, the complaint shares that Amazon sold a brand of Bluetooth headphones for “39% off” for Prime Day, at a purported sale price of $109.95. For this product, the “list price” provided on the defendant’s website was $179.95, even though the headphones had not been listed on Amazon for that price for 90 days prior to the supposed Prime Day Deal, the lawsuit says. In reality, the actual list price for the Bluetooth headphones ranged from $130 to $160, the case attests. 

According to the class action lawsuit, Amazon has run the same fake-sale playbook on everything from kids’ tablets to air fryers to children’s costumes and more during Prime Day. 

“Amazon uses these misleading Prime Day Percentage Discounts to lure consumers to purchase products they would not otherwise purchase, or spend more money than they would otherwise spend,” the suit summarizes, claiming that Amazon would have to reduce its profit margins if it offered the advertised steep discounts based on products’ actual original prices.

In the event that Amazon does sell a particular product at the allegedly fake prior price, “it is only for an extremely short period,” potentially as short as one day, the lawsuit continues. 

“Amazon conducts these short spikes solely to try to make the stricken through Fake Prior Amazon Prices literally true, even if, in practice, consumers are deceived by Amazon’s omission of the material fact that the referenced prices were only available for a very short period of time, and are, in fact, usually are available at a price more similar to the price offered as a Prime Day Deal.” 

As the lawsuit tells it, Amazon’s Prime Day sales tactics are successful, as online spending increased to $24.1 billion from July 8 to July 11, 2025, in part because Prime Day occurred during that time frame, the suit says. Ultimately, Amazon was able to sell more products during its Prime Day event than it would absent its use of “fraudulent advertising,” the suit alleges.

“While there is nothing wrong with a legitimate sale, a fake one based on a fake reference price is deceptive and misleading to reasonable consumers,” the complaint reads. “It is also unfair.”

The Amazon Prime Day lawsuit looks to cover all consumers in the United States who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, were Prime Members and bought a product during Amazon Prime Day that was advertised with a percentage discount that was based on a stricken-through reference price, when the product had not been sold at that reference price within the prior 90 days. 

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