A customer has filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon, attesting that it breached its contract and engaged in false advertising when it added an additional $2.99 charge for Prime customers to receive ad-free streaming of Prime Video.
The complaint, filed earlier this month in Washington, deals with a recent change to how Amazon Prime deals with ad-free viewing on Prime Video. Formerly, Amazon Prime subscribers paid $14.99/month or $139/year for a number of Amazon-related benefits, including ad-free viewing of movies and TV shows available on Prime Video. However, in January, Amazon changed the terms. Prime subscribers must pay an additional $2.99/month for ad-free viewing, with regular Prime subscribers able to continue watching their shows with ads attached.
The plaintiff contends that they and many others like them purchased a Prime subscription with an expectation of ad-free streaming, which has been available since Prime Video was launched in 2011. The complaint points out that people such as the plaintiff who purchased an annual subscription to the service in, say, June (before the change was rolled out) would have spent $139, only to have the terms of their purchase changed in the middle of their subscription period, effectively constituting a breach of contract.
Prime Video's new ad-free tier follows in the footsteps of a number of other streaming services that have recently separated out ad and ad-free versions of their subscriptions. Most notable has been Netflix, which recently reported over 23 million MAUs on its ad tier alone. It's a move that's frustrating some show creators, too, who say that their work wasn't designed with ad breaks in mind.
IGN has reached out to Amazon for comment.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
