The e-commerce giant has agreed to a seven-figure settlement to ensure financial criminals can continue shopping on the platform without invasive scrutiny from the people they robbed.
Amazon agreed to pay a $2.25 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, successfully defending the right of identity thieves to purchase bulk electronics without having their order histories exposed to the original account holders.
According to the FTC complaint, the e-commerce titan routinely violated the Fair Credit Billing Act by refusing to provide victims of identity theft with any information regarding what was purchased using their stolen credentials. Internal documents suggest executives viewed the modest regulatory fine as a necessary expense to ensure their fastest-growing demographic of cybercriminals does not experience any friction during the checkout process.
The regulatory agency noted that the $2.25 million penalty—a sum equivalent to roughly four minutes of Amazon’s quarterly revenue—was carefully calculated to send a devastating message to the $2 trillion company about the importance of customer service.
When a valued identity thief uses our platform to purchase six identical OLED televisions on a stolen Visa, the last thing we want to do is violate their trust by handing those receipts over to the original cardholder.
Following the settlement, Amazon assured shareholders that the regulatory burden would not impact its core fulfillment metrics. The company confirmed it has already deployed a new algorithmic roadmap to proactively recommend complementary accessories to users who are currently purchasing 500 digital gift cards from IP addresses located in a different hemisphere than their billing zip code.