Consumer Deception fines

The FTC settled claims that Amazon tricked consumers into enrolling in Prime through deceptive sign-up flows and made cancellation deliberately difficult, an internal process nicknamed Iliad. The settlement comprised a $1B civil penalty and $1.5B in refunds to about 35 million customers.

Apple agreed to a US class-action settlement of up to $500M, roughly $25 per affected iPhone, over the same undisclosed performance throttling.

Forty US states settled claims that Google misled users into believing location tracking was off while it kept collecting location data through other settings such as Web & App Activity. It was the largest multistate privacy settlement at the time.

In one of the first Digital Markets Act fines, the Commission found that Meta's pay-or-consent model forced Facebook and Instagram users to either pay a subscription or accept full data combination for personalised ads, without a genuine less-data alternative. Meta adjusted the model after the decision.

The FTC and DOJ penalised Twitter, now X, for using phone numbers and email addresses collected for account security, such as two-factor authentication, to target advertising.

Thirty-four US states settled claims over the hidden iPhone throttling, separate from the consumer class action.

France's DGCCRF fined Apple for failing to tell consumers that iOS updates could slow older iPhones to manage aging batteries, part of the wider Batterygate episode.

The FTC penalised Google for circumventing Safari's default cookie-blocking to track users for advertising, despite telling those users they were protected. It was a record FTC civil penalty at the time.

Italy's AGCM fined Apple for misleading marketing about iPhone water resistance and for refusing warranty service on water-damaged phones.