Amazon to pay $309 million to U.S. shoppers in settlement over returns

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Amazon AMZN.O has agreed to pay $309 million and provide other benefits in a class action settlement with customers who claimed they initiated product returns but were incorrectly denied refunds.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle to approve the accord in a court filing on Friday, saying it provided more than $1 billion in value to millions of class members.

As part of the settlement, the plaintiffs said they had secured more than $600 million in individual refunds for Amazon customers. They said Amazon was also providing more than $363 million in non‑monetary relief to improve its return and refund practices.

Amazon denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement.

“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," an Amazon spokesperson said, adding that the company had taken steps to resolve the issue.

Lead attorneys for the consumers had no immediate comment.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023, said Amazon caused “substantial unjustified monetary losses” for consumers who in some instances properly returned an item but were still charged for it.

In a court filing, Amazon said customers accepted the terms of the company’s return policies, including the possibility they would be recharged for failing to return the product within a specified time frame.

The proposed settlement class covers U.S. purchasers of goods on Amazon from September 2017 who allegedly did not receive timely or correct refunds, or who were later charged despite returning items.

Class members are expected to recover the full amount of any incorrectly denied refund or retrocharge, plus interest, the plaintiffs told the court.

The class attorneys said they would seek up to $100 million in legal fees as part of the settlement.

The case is In re: Amazon Return Policy Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, No. 2:23-CV-1372-JNW.

For plaintiffs: Andrew Schapiro, Adam Wolfson and Nolan Anderson of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan; and Aaron Zigler of Zigler Law Group

For defendant: Moez Kaba of Hueston Hennigan, and Brian Buckley and Jedediah Wakefield of Fenwick

Read more:

Amazon must face US nationwide class action over third-party sales

How Big Tech is faring against US antitrust lawsuits

Amazon must face US class action over Alexa users' privacy

Amazon to pay $2.5 billion for allegedly duping millions to sign up for Prime

Amazon must face authors' lawsuit over audiobook distribution, US judge rules