Amazon to pay $309 million to settle lawsuit on refunds

Amazon argued that customers had agreed to its return policies, including that they could be charged again for failing to return the product within a specified time frame

Amazon has agreed to pay $309 million to settle a class action lawsuit in which the plaintiffs claimed they were incorrectly denied refunds for product returns, Reuters reported Monday.

Filed in 2023, the lawsuit alleged that Amazon charged consumers for items they had properly returned or did not provide consumers with timely or correct refunds, according to the report.

Amazon argued that customers had agreed to its return policies, including that they could be charged again for failing to return the product within a specified time frame, the report said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs told the judge that in addition to the payment of $309 million, Amazon had already agreed to over $600 million in individual refunds to customers and to non-monetary relief to improve its return and refund practices, per the report.

In the settlement, Amazon denied any wrongdoing, according to the report.

An Amazon spokesperson told Reuters: Following an internal review in 2025, we identified a small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us, so no refund had been issued.

TechCrunch reported Tuesday that Amazon said it started issuing refunds for that small subset of returns in 2025 and that it will provide more refunds and compensation to eligible customers under the settlement agreement.

In another, separate case, it was reported Jan. 5 that a federal judge rejected Amazon’s attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of failing to take measures to prevent merchants on its platform from charging excessive prices during the pandemic.

Amazon had argued that consumer protection laws in Washington state, where the company is based, are vague when it comes to pricing issues.