Penalty Amount
$25,000,000
The FTC and DOJ charged Amazon with violating COPPA by indefinitely retaining children's Alexa voice recordings and failing to honor parents' deletion requests. Under a proposed consent decree, Amazon must pay $25 million, delete children's data, and implement privacy safeguards.
Amazon is required to pay a $25 million civil penalty, delete inactive child accounts and voice recordings, prohibit using deleted data for algorithm training, notify users about the action and its practices, and implement a privacy program for geolocation data.
In-house legal teams should review all vendor and customer agreements, particularly those involving voice assistant services, IoT devices, or any child-directed products/services. Focus on clauses governing data retention, deletion processes, parental consent mechanisms, and data use for algorithm training. Specific attention is needed for provisions that allow indefinite storage of children's voice/geolocation data, restrict parental deletion rights, or permit internal data reuse. Contracts may require amendments to mandate automatic deletion after a short period, implement verifiable parental consent workflows, prohibit using children's data for model training, and establish clear audit rights for compliance with COPPA's data minimization and deletion requirements.
Entity
Amazon.com, Inc.
Also known as: Amazon
Industry
TechnologyOfficial Press Release
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-doj-charge-amazon-violating-childrens-privacy-law-keeping-kids-alexa-voice-recordings-forever
Amazon Complaint (Dkt.1)
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/Amazon-Complaint-%28Dkt.1%29.pdf
Amazon Proposed Stipulated Order (Dkt. 2 1)
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/Amazon-Proposed-Stipulated-Order-%28Dkt.-2-1%29.pdf
Federal Trade Commission Enforcement Page
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement
"Amazon"
"pay a $25 million civil penalty"
"Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule)"
"kept children’s recordings indefinitely"
$1.0B
The FTC secured a $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon, including a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in consumer refunds, for enrolling millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without proper consent and designing a deliberately difficult cancellation process. The order requires Amazon to implement clear enrollment disclosures, an easy cancellation method, and cease the unlawful practices.
The FTC sent warning letters to 12 companies offering 'nudify' tools that generate nonconsensual intimate images, for failing to comply with the TAKE IT DOWN Act (TIDA) by not providing a mechanism for victims to request removal of such content. The letters urge immediate compliance with TIDA, which requires platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid request. Noncompliant companies may face future legal action and civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation.
The FTC began enforcing the TAKE IT DOWN Act on May 19, 2026, a law requiring covered platforms to establish a process for victims to request removal of nonconsensual intimate images and delete such content within 48 hours of a valid request. The agency launched a consumer complaint portal, issued compliance guidance for businesses and consumers, and sent reminder letters to major platforms including Meta, TikTok, and X about their obligations under the law. No specific penalties or enforcement actions against individual companies were announced in this release.
$6.5M
A federal court held Cliq Inc. and its executives Andrew Phillips and John Blaugrund in civil contempt for multiple violations of a 2015 FTC order requiring the payment processor to prevent enabling consumer fraud. The court found the defendants facilitated fraud by processing transactions for high-risk merchants, avoiding fraud monitoring, failing to conduct required underwriting, and ignoring chargeback thresholds. The court imposed $6.5 million in civil contempt sanctions against the defendants.
$795.8M
The FTC and State of Nevada settled charges with lead defendants of the IM Mastery Academy MLM scheme, including Chris and Isis Terry and their affiliated companies, over false earnings claims used to promote financial training programs and a multi-level marketing venture. The stipulated order imposes a $795.8 million judgment, with defendants surrendering nearly $90 million in assets including luxury real estate, vehicles, jewelry, and a yacht, totaling over $100 million with prior judgments from other involved defendants. The order also bans defendants from selling trading-training services, prohibits false earnings claims, and restricts deceptive practices including negative-option misrepresentations and telemarketing violations.
The FTC and State of Illinois, via the Department of Justice, filed a complaint against B.E.S.T. GDR LLC (d/b/a Premium Home Service) and its owner Yosef Bernath for creating thousands of fake home repair business listings with fabricated five-star reviews to deceive consumers. The defendants allegedly routed consumer calls to unqualified representatives, arranged for unlicensed technicians, and violated the FTC Act, Reviews and Testimonials Rule, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and Illinois consumer protection laws. No monetary penalty has been imposed yet as the case is in initial filing stages.