Correction and clarification: A previous version of this story erroneously reported the settlement amount that Amazon agreed to pay the FTC. The correct amount is $2.5 billion.

Amazon is facing another lawsuit, this time for allegedly misleading customers with fake deals during its popular Prime Day sale.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Amazon customers in federal court in Washington state on Sept. 22 and alleges that Amazon Prime Day is "rife with fake sales and misleading 'percent off' claims."

The suit accuses Amazon of using fake listing prices to calculate its Prime Day percentage discounts, falsely leading consumers to believe they are getting a better deal than they actually are. The "before discount" prices that Amazon displays next to sale items are inflated, says the lawsuit, and do not reflect what products were actually sold for in the period leading up to Prime Day, which is supposed to offer exclusive discounts.

While Amazon does have a disclaimer that says it displays list prices based on whether a product was purchased by a customer at or above that price in the past 90 days, the lawsuit alleges that the higher "pre-sale" prices do not adhere to this 90-day rule. In some cases, the complaint says, Amazon would raise the listing price but for an "extremely short" period, sometimes only a day, to make it appear that the later Prime Day discounts were legitimate. In other cases, the products had not been sold at the higher price for 90 days or even longer at all.

"Amazon uses these fake Prime Day Percentage Discounts, offered under the extreme time pressure of the brief Prime Day window, to lure consumers to purchase products. And its tactics work," says the lawsuit.

USA TODAY contacted Amazon on Oct. 16 but has not received a response.

Customers actually paid more for 'sale' products in at least one case, says lawsuit

Using the last Prime Day event, which took place from July 8-11, the lawsuit points to several examples of this allegedly deceptive practice.

In one instance, a kids' tablet was advertised as being marked down 40% exclusively for Prime Day, bringing its price down from $119.99 to $72.18. However, the tablet was not listed at that price in the 90 days prior to the sale. In fact, it was sold for between $50 and $85, with a median price of around $72, during the prior 90 days, alleges the suit, meaning customers actually paid more than $20 more than its lowest "non-sale" price.

In another, an air fryer was listed as being $40% for Prime Day only, lowering the cost from $59.99 to $35.99. Not only had Amazon not sold the air fryer at the higher price in the 90 days before the sale, but it hadn't listed that price in the year before the sale date, according to the lawsuit.

In multiple cases outlined in the lawsuit, deals that were supposed to be exclusive to Prime Day either represented discounts only a fraction as steep as advertised, or none at all.

Had the two customers on the lawsuit known how much the products typically cost and that the deals were not as advertised, they would not have purchased the products they did during the last sale, the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit came after a Substack newsletter called Popular Information published a July piece accusing Amazon of scamming customers on Prime Day.

Amazon to pay $2.5 billion in separate lawsuit

Amazon has recently faced increased scrutiny for its advertising practices. In September, the retail giant agreed to pay what the Federal Trade Commission called a "historic" $2.5 billion settlement after it was accused of manipulating customers into getting and keeping Prime subscriptions.

As part of the settlement, Amazon will pay $1 billion in civil penalties and $1.5 billion in consumer relief for roughly 35 million impacted customers. According to court documents, some eligible customers will automatically receive up to $51 in relief, while others will have to submit a claim.

This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amazon Prime Day is full of 'fake sales,' lawsuit alleges

Reporting by Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect