Amazon Prime is being sued after making major change to viewer experience

Amazon has been sued after being accused of misleading Prime Video subscribers after it made the decision to include adverts on the streaming platform.

In a very unpopular change Prime Video now comes with adverts as standard and you have to pay more if you don't want to be interrupted.

Amazon say having adverts means they can 'continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time'.

Ads will run before and during your Prime Video show, though they won't pop up on things you've rented or bought from them.

If you want things to go back to the way they were and go ad-free, you'll be required to fork over an extra £2.99 a month, so while the subscription price hasn't risen this time, you're paying the same for a viewing experience riddled with ads.

Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

There are over 200 million Amazon Prime subscribers worldwide, and it seems some of them are particularly unhappy as according to The Hollywood Reporter, a class action lawsuit has been filed in California's federal court.

The lawsuit claims there's been a breach of contract and a violation of the American state's consumer protection laws for users who saw their subscription change.

This change has been alleged to be deceptive by the lawsuit, which claims Prime Video customers must now 'pay extra to get something they already paid for'.

The suit also claims that Amazon benefitted for years by advertising Prime Video as an ad-free platform and that the switch 'harms both consumers and honest competition'.

Amazon Prime

The class action lawsuit is seeking at least $5 million and a court order preventing Amazon from doing any more of what they claim is 'deceptive conduct'.

It argues that those who subscribed to Prime Video before 28 December 2023 thought they were paying for an advert free platform.

Among the wider subscriber base there has been a general wave of discontent, with some declaring that they'd rather cancel than have to sit through adverts.

It's a little like shrinkflation applied to a streaming service, insofar as instead of the price rising for once something has changed about the product.

Prime Video is not the first streaming platform to introduce adverts, but when Netflix did it, they introduced a cheaper subscription tier people could switch onto while not changing the experience their current subscribers had paid for.

LADbible has contacted Amazon for comment.

Topics: Amazon, Amazon Prime, US News, TV and Film

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker