Why Amazon's Prime Cancel Flow Was Called 'Iliad'

Inside Amazon, the process for canceling Prime had a code name: Iliad. The FTC says the name points to Homer's epic about the long Trojan War. In its complaint, the agency alleged that leaving through that flow took four pages, six clicks and fifteen options, while signing up took one or two clicks. This video goes through the record, from the 2016 start date the FTC gives for the flow, to the amended complaint naming three executives in 2023, the trial in Seattle and the $2.5 billion settlement in September 2025. It ends with the refund phase that began on October 1, 2026. We look at what the FTC says employees flagged internally, where the customer service phone line led, and the one word the complaint uses to explain why fixes stalled. We also hear Amazon's side: the company said it and its executives always followed the law, and that it settled to avoid years of trial and appeals. To read the case, we use anthropologist Marilyn Strathern's version of Goodhart's law: once a measure turns into a goal, it stops measuring well. How the evidence sorts: the settlement, the $2.5 billion and the court order are documented. The internal warnings and the reasons fixes stalled are FTC allegations, settled without admission and never decided by a jury. The Goodhart reading and the "eleven years" count are the narrator's interpretation. Chapters 0:00 A Code Name: Iliad 1:03 The Way Out 2:26 Names Inside the Company 3:38 The FTC Went Higher 5:01 A Few Days In 6:28 Measure Turns Into a Goal 8:05 Back to the Code Name Narration in this video uses an AI-generated voice. Every factual claim is sourced below.