Amazon pays record $2.25M fine for blocking identity theft victims
Amazon has agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle federal charges that it repeatedly denied identity theft victims the records they were legally entitled to. The Federal Trade Commission says the fine is a record penalty for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act's Section 609(e). For anyone who has ever had their Amazon account misused by a fraudster, the settlement reveals just how hard the company made it to fight back.
The law Amazon broke
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, US businesses must hand over records of fraudulent transactions to identity theft victims — free of charge — within 30 days of a request. The FTC says Amazon's customer service representatives routinely denied those requests, citing security or privacy concerns. In some cases, staff told victims the company simply couldn't retrieve records of suspicious purchases. When records were eventually provided, they often arrived after the 30-day deadline, per the FTC official press release.
The most damaging detail: Amazon had no written policy for handling Section 609(e) requests at all — until early 2025, after the FTC had already begun its investigation. The agency had also reached out to the company beforehand, meaning the compliance gap wasn't a surprise to Amazon's legal team.
What the settlement requires
The $2.25 million penalty is the largest ever imposed for this specific type of FCRA violation, as Engadget reports. Beyond the fine, the settlement order requires Amazon to provide records to victims and law enforcement at no cost going forward. The company must also contact consumers whose requests were denied since April 2024 and give them a second chance to obtain their records.
A pattern of compliance failures
This isn't Amazon's first run-in with the FTC over consumer protection. In 2023, the company paid $5.8 million to settle charges that Ring — its home camera brand — had allowed employees and contractors to access private customer videos. The FTC also has ongoing antitrust probes into Amazon's marketplace practices.
The FCRA case adds to a picture of a company that has been slow to build internal compliance infrastructure despite its scale. If you believe your Amazon account was used fraudulently and you previously requested transaction records that were ignored or refused, the settlement means you may now have a renewed right to those documents — at no cost.
