WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 -- Amazon goes to trial today in a US government lawsuit that accuses the e-commerce giant of using tricks to enrol millions of customers in its Prime subscription service and then making it nearly impossible to cancel.

The Federal Trade Commission's complaint, filed in June 2023, alleges that Amazon knowingly used designs known as "dark patterns" to trick consumers into signing up for the US$139-per-year (RM585-per-year) Prime service during checkouts.

The case centres on two main allegations: that Amazon enrolled customers without clear consent through confusing checkout processes, and that it created a deliberately complex cancellation system internally nicknamed "Iliad" - after Homer's epic about the long, arduo...