Legal Action Taken Against Amazon for Misleading Subscribers with Prime Video Advertisements

According to the complaint filed in a California federal court on Friday, Amazon is accused of breaking consumer protection regulations and violating the terms of its contract with the millions of Prime members who pay an annual subscription fee. This violation occurred when Amazon introduced commercials to its Prime Video service.

Last month, Amazon announced that its ad-supported tier for its streaming service would become the standard choice for all subscribers. However, in order to watch its content without any commercials, customers now have to pay an additional monthly fee of $2.99.

According to the plaintiff’s complaint, the alteration made by Amazon is considered “deceptive,” “unfair,” and “unlawful” towards yearly subscribers who had enrolled and paid for the ad-free feature. This could potentially lead to allegations of breach of contract and warranties, false advertising, unfair competition, and infringements of consumer protection laws in Washington and California.

According to the lawsuit, consumers who bought a subscription for ad-free streaming of movies and TV shows were disappointed when the promised ad-free streaming was not available for the entire duration of their subscription. The plaintiff and other customers in the class argued that this did not meet their reasonable expectations and that the annual subscribers received a subscription that was not as valuable as promised.

Wilbert Napoleon, a resident of California, is the plaintiff in a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all other annual Prime customers who subscribed prior to Dec. 28, 2023. The lawsuit is pursuing a minimum of $5 million in damages and a court order to prevent Amazon from continuing the mentioned practice.

According to experts, Amazon’s Prime Video advertisements are expected to produce billions of dollars in additional yearly profits. Amazon claims this will enable the company to persistently invest in creating high-quality content.

In the year 2020, a different customer put forward a class action lawsuit accusing Amazon of participating in unfair competition and misleading advertising tactics. The lawsuit focused on the platform’s ability to terminate customer access to Prime Video content that they had bought. However, a federal judge rejected the case, stating that the purchase could be cancelled or altered in response to licensing modifications.