(File Photo of the U.S. Department of Justice Logo)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department sued six more states on Thursday, saying the states are illegally blocking the agency’s wide-ranging effort to scrutinize detailed voter data in a brewing court fight over what states say is the private, protected information of residents.

The Justice Department also accused the states of failing to respond sufficiently to questions about the procedures they take to maintain voter rolls as states called the department’s request for voters’ personal information unprecedented and illegal, and vowed to fight it.

The department’s newest lawsuits targeted California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania after it sued Oregon and Maine last week and has said it is mounting a nationwide effort to ensure that states are complying with federal requirements to maintain voter rolls.

“Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”

All eight states being sued are led by Democratic governors, except for New Hampshire, which is led by a Republican.

An Associated Press tally found that the Justice Department has asked at least 26 states for voter registration rolls in recent months and in many cases asked states for information on how they maintain their voter rolls.

Some states have sent redacted versions of their voter lists that are available to the public or declined or demurred on the voter registration data requests, citing their own state laws or the Justice Department’s failure to fulfill federal Privacy Act obligations.

Minnesota’s secretary of state, Steve Simon, said in a statement Thursday that Minnesota’s elections are “fair, accurate, honest and secure” and that the Department of Justice isn’t entitled to the information.

“We have been very clear with the DOJ about our position that state and federal law do not allow our office to provide them with private voter data unless they provide information about how the information will be used and secured,” Simon said.

The Justice Department never responded to Minnesota’s inquiries about that before it sued Thursday, Simon said.

California’s secretary of state, Shirley Weber, said in a statement that the Department of Justice “failed to provide sufficient legal authority to justify their intrusive demands” and its lawsuit has no basis in any previous department practice or policy.

Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, Al Schmidt, called the department’s demand for voters’ personal information “unprecedented and unlawful” said his agency will fight the federal government’s “overreach.”

In its lawsuits, the department said the states were breaking federal law by refusing to supply all of their information on registered voters, including a voter’s full name, date of birth, address, state driver’s license number and the last four digits of their Social Security number.

That, and insufficient answers about voter list maintenance procedures, make it impossible for the Justice Department to determine whether the states are complying with federal law, the department told the courts.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said her agency gave the Justice Department what it is legally entitled to, the public version of Michigan’s voter file. But she said she told the department it couldn’t have the private, personal information of more than 8 million state residents because it is protected by state and federal law.

Benson called it an “illegal and unconstitutional power grab” and said the department rebuffed questions about why it wants the information.

“I have asked them these questions. Other secretaries of state – both Democrats and Republicans – have also asked them these questions. They refuse to give us a straight answer,” Benson said.

The Justice Department’s outreach has alarmed some election officials because the agency doesn’t have the constitutional authority to run elections. That power is granted to states and Congress. Federal law also protects the sharing of individual data with the federal government.

Election officials suggest that federal officials want the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for noncitizens on the rolls.

Benson and Nevada’s secretary of state, both Democrats, have said they will work together with other state election officials to oppose the department’s requests.

(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) A man from Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, who is one of the retired co-owners of the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company in the Strip Hill District of Pittsburgh, recently got a misdemeanor charge of terroristic threats. Sixty-eight-year-old David J. Sunseri got charged because of an alleged incident that happened at a building in Pittsburgh on September 15th, 2025. Sunseri allegedly banged on a window and yelled, telling someone inside to come outside so that he could fight him, later allegedly saying he would kill that person inside. A criminal complaint confirms that Sunseri tried to get in the building when he went to the back of the building but could not get into it. Then, Sunseri allegedly went back to the front of the building and continued to make threats and yell. According to the criminal complaint, the victim told police that Sunseri eventually went back to his car and, while getting into the vehicle, picked up a firearm that was lying on the sidewalk. Police gave the victim advice to get a protection from abuse order against Sunseri, who has a misdemeanor charge of terroristic threats against him.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Business Wire, Caption for Photo: Maxwell House rebrand to “Maxwell Apartment” celebrates smart choices and offers coffee lovers nationwide even more value with a 12-month lease of great-tasting, affordable coffee.)

CHICAGO & PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep 25, 2025– Maxwell House rebrands to “Maxwell Apartment” to meet the needs of today’s consumer and remind fans the brand is synonymous with great tasting, affordable coffee. In a time where value matters now more than ever, Americans seek value in areas of their everyday, including where they live with nearly a third opting to rent versus purchase a home. 1 As a real coffee for real people, with its “Good To the Last Drop” legacy, the name change celebrates the same principle that guided Maxwell House for more than a century – smart choices add up and choosing Maxwell House means enjoying a quality cup of coffee without the cafe price tag. To celebrate, the brand is offering consumers even more value with a 12-month “lease” of Maxwell Apartment, designed to stock up coffee lovers nationwide.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250925130982/en/

Maxwell House rebrand to “Maxwell Apartment” celebrates smart choices and offers coffee lovers nationwide even more value with a 12-month lease of great-tasting, affordable coffee.

Beginning on National Coffee Day (Sept. 29), Maxwell House’s 12-month “lease” offer of Maxwell Apartment coffee is available on Amazon.com, while supplies last. For under $40, fans can stock their pantry with a full year of coffee – designed to save coffee enthusiasts more than $1,000 annually, compared to daily café runs, 2 which on average can add up to more than $90 per month. Along with the rebranded canisters, the year-long supply of coffee will come with an official Maxwell Apartment “lease” to sign.

“Two-thirds of American adults drink coffee every day, 3 which can add up quickly, especially these days,” said Holly Ramsden, Head of Coffee, North America at the Kraft Heinz Company. “Maxwell House believes no one should have to go without great tasting coffee and Maxwell Apartment delivers the same delicious taste people know and love, at a value that celebrates all our fans are doing to make smart choices in their lives.”

The limited-time rebrand to Maxwell Apartment delivers the same delicious taste, aroma, quality and ingredients – in fact it’s all the same except the name. An extension of the brand’s “Good to the Last Drop” platform, Maxwell Apartment is one of two campaigns debuting from the coffee brand this fall as it continues to emphasize its dedication to rich, consistent flavor people can count on while doubling down on offering the best value in coffee.

To learn more about Maxwell Apartment, visit MaxwellHouse.com and follow @officialmaxwellhouse on Instagram and TikTok.

(Photo Courtesy of the Allegheny County Police Department)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(McKees Rocks, PA) School board members from the Sto-Rox School District have recently approved fencing that is new around the playground outside Sto-Rox Primary Center in McKees Rocks. One reason this approval was made is because on September 2nd, 2025, a non-verbal five-year-old boy with autism walked away from recess outside Sto-Rox Primary Center in their playground area, which caused a big search before he was found later that day. Within the next month is when the new fencing will be installed and just more than $16,500 is what it will cost to install that new fencing. Sto-Rox School District officials confirm that the five-year-old boy who escaped from recess outside the Sto-Rox Primary Center on September 2nd, 2025 is doing well and is back in school. Two people are also going to be watching the kids during recess at Sto-Rox Primary Center instead of one.

(File Photo of Road Work Ahead Sign)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Potter Township, PA) PennDOT District 11 announced that on Monday, September 29th and Tuesday, September 30th, weather permitting, a spur restriction on I-376 (Beaver Valley Expressway) in Potter Township will occur. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on those two days, a closure of the spur from eastbound I-376 to southbound Route 18 (Frankfort Road) at the Monaca/Shippingport (Exit 39) interchange will occur as crews from Lindy Paving will conduct milling and base repair operations there. Traffic from the ramp will be directed to keep going straight to the traffic light and then turn right onto Route 18. A single-lane closure on southbound Route 18 will also occur in the area of the spur on Monday and Tuesday if weather permits. 

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Joseph Rothrock, special agent in charge, FBI Dallas, responds to questions during a news conference at a U.S. Attorney’s office Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

DALLAS (AP) — The gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas hated the U.S. government and wanted to incite terror by killing federal agents, officials said Thursday, offering the first hint of a motive in the attack.

Citing handwritten notes found at his suburban home, authorities said 29-year-old Joshua Jahn set out to ambush the agency and then fatally shot himself following the assault.

The shooting at daybreak Wednesday targeted the ICE office building, including a van in a gated entryway that held detainees. One detainee was killed, and two others were critically wounded. No ICE personnel were hurt.

Jahn “specifically intended to kill ICE agents,” firing at vehicles carrying ICE personnel, federal agents and detainees. “He also fired multiple shots in the windows of the office building where numerous ICE employees do their jobs every day,” said Joseph Rothrock, agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office.”

Jahn’s notes indicated “that he did not expect to survive this event,” Rothrock said. “He wanted to cause terror.”

The gunman, who authorities said fired indiscriminately from a nearby rooftop, was involved in a “high degree of pre-attack planning,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on the social platform X.

Patel quoted a note that said: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?” The note used an apparent abbreviation for armor-piercing bullets.

The attack happened as heightened immigration enforcement has generated a backlash against ICE agents and stirred fear in immigrant communities across the country.

The assailant appeared to have acted alone. Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said investigators discovered the notes at Jahn’s residence. Another note said, “Yes, it was just me.” Other notes were sharply critical of ICE agents and indicated he hoped to avoid hurting any detainees.

Investigators have not found that the gunman was a member of any particular group or entity, Larson said. And while he broadly wrote about hatred of the federal government, he did not mention any federal agencies other than ICE, she said.

The gunman had also downloaded a document titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management” containing a list of Homeland Security facilities, Patel said.

Hours before the shooting, the assailant conducted multiple internet searches for ballistics information and video of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah university campus this month, Patel said. Last month, the man searched for apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents, he added.

On Wednesday, Patel posted a photo on social media showing a bullet found at the scene with “ANTI-ICE” written on it. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered more security at ICE facilities across the U.S., according to a post by the DHS on X.

Shooter arrived before dawn with a ladder

The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and blocks from hotels.

Jahn was seen driving into the area about 3 a.m. with a large ladder on top of his vehicle, Larson said. The ladder is believed to have been used to climb to the roof of a nearby building.

The gunfire started around 6:30 a.m., Larson said. Shots were sprayed along the length of the ICE facility, into the windows and into the van, she said.

Jahn legally obtained the bolt-action rifle used in the shooting in August, Rothrock said.

He “also acknowledged the potential for other casualties,” Rothrock said. “He knew with a high likelihood ICE detainees would be transported that morning in the exact location where he was facing from his perch” atop the roof.

Following ICE procedures, the detainees were restrained inside the van, said Marcos Charles, field office director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE.

“Under gunfire, multiple federal agents ran into that fire to remove these individuals and to attempt to render lifesaving aid under the most dire circumstances,” Rothrock said.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims.

Who was the gunman?

Noah Jahn described his brother as “unique” and told NBC News that the anti-ICE messages were surprising.

“He didn’t have strong feelings about ICE as far as I knew,” Noah Jahn said. “He wasn’t interested in politics on either side as far as I knew.”

He said the two grew up about 30 miles away in Allen, Texas, and that his brother took an interest in coding but was unemployed. Noah Jahn said he last saw his brother two weeks ago at their parents’ house and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

A spokesperson for Collin College in nearby McKinney, said via email that a Joshua Jahn studied there “at various times” between 2013 and 2018.

In late 2017, Jahn drove cross-country to work a minimum-wage job harvesting marijuana for several months, said Ryan Sanderson, owner of a legal cannabis farm in Washington state.

ICE has been targeted elsewhere

Noem noted a recent uptick in targeting of ICE agents.

On July 4, attackers in black, military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, federal prosecutors said. One police officer was wounded. At least 11 people have been charged in connection with the attack.

Days later, a man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents leaving a Border Patrol facility in McAllen. The man, identified as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, injured a responding police officer before authorities shot and killed him.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Officers salute during a procession for slain Northern York County Regional Police detectives Cody Michael Becker, Mark Edward Baker and Isaiah Emenheiser, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in Red Lion, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

RED LION, Pa. (AP) — Three Pennsylvania detectives shot to death last week while attempting to arrest a stalking suspect were remembered at their funeral Thursday as exemplary officers and devoted family men.

The service for Northern York County Regional Police detectives Cody Michael Becker, Mark Edward Baker and Isaiah Emenheiser was held more than a week after they were ambushed by a man who had been inside the home of a woman he was accused of stalking.

“They were gentle, they were kind,” Northern Regional Chief David L. Lash recalled in a eulogy. “They confronted some of the most evil human behaviors imaginable. And not only did they face those challenges, they did so while holding fast to faith, compassion and uncompromising honor.”

Hundreds of police officers were on hand to mourn them at Living Word Community Church in Red Lion in southeastern Pennsylvania after a motorcade brought their flag-draped caskets from a funeral home.

Lash called the three “the best of us. Their sacrifice is a solemn reminder of the cost of service but also the courage required to stand in the face of darkness.”

Autopsy results released this week indicated that all three officers died of multiple gunshot wounds.

A prosecutor said the stalking suspect, 24-year-old Matthew James Ruth, fired on the officers as they opened the door to the woman’s home. Two other officers were seriously wounded. York County District Attorney Tim Barker said he believes Ruth, who died in an exchange of gunfire, had planned to ambush the woman he was accused of stalking.

Becker, 39, a resident of Spring Grove, had been a star multisport athlete in high school. Baker, 53, who lived in Dover, was a computer forensics investigation specialist. Emenheiser, 43, of York, was called a perfectionist with dreams of opening a gym.

Becker served as sergeant of detectives and had been on the Northern Regional force for 16 years. His obituary recounted how in 2010 he climbed to the second story of a burning building to catch children who were escaping through a window. He is survived by a wife and two children. A second service, a public funeral for Becker, will be held Sunday at Spring Grove Area High School in Spring Grove.

“Cody, I looked up to you,” said Northern Regional Cpl. Steven Lebo during Thursday’s service, calling Becker his best friend. “I envied you, I wanted nothing more than to retire together when our time at Northern Regional was complete.”

Baker, a U.S. Army veteran, spent three years with the Philadelphia Police Department before he joined Northern Regional in 2004, first as a patrol officer and then in computer forensics. He had been a detective for 15 years. He was an Eagle Scout and an adult Scouting leader. Survivors include a wife and four children; a fifth child predeceased him.

His daughter, Rebecca Lynn Baker, called him courageous, fearless, kind and compassionate, a devoted father who once showed up in pajamas when she ran out of gasoline late at night coming home from a beach trip.

“As important and prominent as his career was, his love for his family could not be touched,” she said, adding that he “took great pride in helping wherever and whenever he could.”

Emenheiser was a York College criminal justice graduate and served in the U.S. Secret Service before being hired by Northern Regional. He made 104 DUI arrests in 2010 and was named officer of the year, among other professional honors over two decades with the department.

In 2005, Emenheiser broke a window in a burning mobile home in Thomasville and carried a man to safety. Emenheiser’s interests included fitness, home renovations and coaching youth soccer. His surviving family includes a wife and two children.

Northern Regional Sgt. Andrew Miller told mourners how Emenheiser made a point to help mentor him while Miller was an intern. He got to know Emenheiser even better while when they worked overnight shifts together.

“To see someone come to work every day and perform to the best of their abilities, year after year after year, is truly amazing,” Miller recalled.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FBI agents investigate the crime scene near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

DALLAS (AP) — The gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas, killing a detainee and critically wounding two others, left behind a note saying that he hoped the attack would “give ICE agents real terror,” the FBI director said Thursday.

The post by Kash Patel on the social platform X offered the first hint of a motive behind the shooting on Wednesday that targeted the ICE building, including a van in a gated entryway. The detainees were in the van. No ICE personnel were wounded.

The assailant, who authorities said fired indiscriminately from a nearby rooftop, was involved in a “high degree of pre-attack planning,” Patel said, and agents have seized electronic devices, handwritten notes and other evidence from a Dallas-area home.

“One of the handwritten notes recovered read, ‘Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?’” Patel wrote, quoting an apparent abbreviation for armor-piercing bullets.

The gunman had also downloaded a document titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management” containing a list of Homeland Security facilities, Patel said.

Hours before the shooting, the assailant conducted multiple internet searches for ballistics information and video of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a Utah university campus this month, Patel said. Last month, the man searched for apps that tracked the presence of ICE agents, he added.

Joshua Jahn, 29, was identified as the shooter by a law enforcement official who could not publicly disclose details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Patel posted a photo on social media showing a bullet found at the scene with “ANTI-ICE” written on it. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered more security at ICE facilities across the U.S., according to a post by the DHS on X.

The attack was the latest high-profile targeted killing in the U.S. It happened two weeks after Kirk was killed by a shooter on the roof of a building at Utah Valley University and as heightened immigration enforcement has prompted a backlash against ICE agents and fear in immigrant communities.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association called the shootings “a stark reminder that behind every immigration case number is a human being deserving of dignity, safety and respect.”

“Whether they are individuals navigating the immigration process, public servants carrying out their duties, or professionals working within the system, all deserve to be free from violence and fear,” the group said in a statement.

FBI says attack was ‘act of targeted violence’

Authorities have given few details about the shooting and did not publicly release the names of the victims. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as “an act of targeted violence.”

The gunman used a bolt-action rifle, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Edwin Cardona, an immigrant from Venezuela, said he was entering the ICE building with his son for an appointment around 6:20 a.m. when he heard gunshots. An agent took people who were inside to a more secure area and said there was an active shooter.

“I was afraid for my family, because my family was outside. I felt terrible, because I thought something could happen to them,” Cardona said, adding that they were later reunited.

The ICE facility is along Interstate 35 East, just southwest of Dallas Love Field, a large airport serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and blocks from hotels.

Who was the gunman?

Hours after the shooting, FBI agents gathered at a home in suburban Fairview, outside Dallas, that public records link to Jahn.

The house sits on a tree-lined cul-de-sac in a neighborhood dotted with one- and two-story brick homes. The street was blocked by a police vehicle, and officials wearing FBI jackets could be seen in the front yard.

A spokesperson for Collin College in nearby McKinney, said via email that a Joshua Jahn studied there “at various times” between 2013 and 2018.

In late 2017, Jahn drove cross-country to work a minimum-wage job harvesting marijuana for several months, said Ryan Sanderson, owner of a legal cannabis farm in Washington state.

“He’s a young kid, a thousand miles from home, didn’t really seem to have any direction, living out of his car at such a young age,” Sanderson told the AP.

Calls for an end to political violence

Shortly after the shooting and before officials said at least one victim was a detainee, Vice President JD Vance posted on X that “the obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE, must stop.”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who represents Texas, continued in that direction, calling for an end to political violence.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, an advocacy group, said the shootings are “a heartbreaking reminder of the violence and fear that too often touch the lives of migrants and the communities where they live.”

Noem says ICE agents have been targeted

Noem noted a recent uptick in targeting of ICE agents.

On July 4, attackers in black, military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, federal prosecutors said. One police officer was wounded. At least 11 people have been charged in connection with the attack.

Days later, a man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents leaving a Border Patrol facility in McAllen. The man, identified as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, injured a responding police officer before authorities shot and killed him.

In suburban Chicago, federal authorities erected a fence around an immigration processing center after tensions flared with protesters. President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up immigration enforcement in the Chicago area, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

Dozens of immigration field offices across the country house administrative employees and are used for people summoned for check-in appointments and to process people arrested before they are transferred to long-term detention centers. They are not designed to hold people in custody.

Security varies by location, with some in federal buildings and others mixed with private businesses, said John Torres, a former acting director of the agency and former head of what is now called its enforcement and removals division.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – An Amazon Prime driver makes a delivery outside an apartment building in Pittsburgh, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said the online retail giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships and made it difficult for them to cancel after doing so.

The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest fine in the agency’s history — and $1.5 billion will be paid back to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions, the agency said Thursday.

The surprise settlement comes just days after the trial began in U.S. District Court in Seattle this week. At the heart of the case is the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to ensure that people know what they’re being charged for online.

FTC officials said Amazon had its back against the wall and the consumer refund amount exceeded even the agency’s expert projections.

“I think it just took a few days for them to see that they were going to lose. And they came to us and they paid out,” said Chris Mufarrige, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, on the settlement negotiations.

Amazon, however, said it was confident it would win case but that it chose to resolve it quickly instead of going through potentially years of trial and appeals. The company admitted no wrongdoing in the case, which was first filed two years ago.

“Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” said spokesman Mark Blafkin in a statement. “We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world.”

Certain Prime customers who are eligible for automatic refunds of up to $51 include those who may have signed up for a membership via the company’s “Single Page Checkout,” among other links, between June 23, 2019, to June 23, 2025. Those customers will be reimbursed within 90 days of the settlement order.

Amazon is also on the hook to set up a claims process for more than 30 million customers who may have been affected by the other issues at the heart of the FTC case, including its cancellation process.

Amazon Prime provides subscribers with perks that include faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods for a fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month.

It’s a key and growing part of Amazon’s business, with more than 200 million members. In its latest financial report, the company reported in July that it booked more than $12 billion in net revenue for subscription services, a 12% increase from the same period last year. That figure includes annual and monthly fees associated with Prime memberships, as well as other subscription services such as its music and e-books platforms.

The FTC said Amazon deliberately made it difficult for customers to purchase an item without also subscribing to Prime. In some cases, consumers were presented with a button to complete their transactions — which did not clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime, the agency said.

Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made canceling easier, according to an FTC complaint.

Internally, Amazon called the process “Iliad,” a reference to the ancient Greek poem about the lengthy siege of Troy during the Trojan war. The process requires the customer to affirm on three pages their desire to cancel membership.

The FTC began looking into Amazon’s Prime subscription practices in 2021 during the first Trump administration, but the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under former FTC Chair Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who had been appointed by Biden.

The agency filed the case months before it submitted an antitrust lawsuit against the retail and technology company, accusing it of having monopolistic control over online markets.

As part of the settlement terms, Amazon is prohibited from misrepresenting the terms of the subscriptions. It must fully disclose the costs to be incurred and obtain the customer’s express consent for the charge. For example, it must have a clear option for customers to accept or decline a Prime subscription being offered during a purchase, avoiding potentially confusing language such as: “No thanks, I don’t want free shipping.”

Automatic renewals for memberships must be clearly marked and the company is also required to use a cancellation process, which “must not be difficult, costly, confusing or time consuming,” according to the settlement.

Amazon said the settlement doesn’t require it to make any additional changes — only to maintain its current sign-up and cancellation process that it had put in place in recent years.