SYDNEY — Australia’s shopper watchdog has sued Amazon for introducing promoting to its Prime Video streaming service after which forcing present subscribers to pay extra to keep away from the advertisements.
The Australian Competitors and Client Fee (ACCC) stated on Tuesday it has commenced proceedings within the Federal Court docket alleging Amazon breached shopper regulation by together with unfair phrases in its Prime subscription contracts.
It additionally alleged Amazon had damaged shopper safety regulation by making the unfair contracts with over 1,000,000 annual subscribers between November 2023 and August 2025.
“Shoppers who wished to keep away from advertisements had been left with no alternative however to pay extra to take care of the service they’d initially signed up for”, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb stated.
A spokeswoman for Amazon instructed the BBC the corporate is “reviewing the case filed by the ACCC intimately.”
“We have now cooperated with the ACCC all through its investigation and stay targeted on offering the very best expertise for our Australian prospects”, she added.
For greater than a decade, Prime Video was a commercial-free streaming providing that was included as a part of Amazon’s well-liked Prime subscription, which is offered as an improve on its core supply service.
Prime grew to become out there in Australia in 2018. It began to roll out promoting within the service globally in early 2024.
When Amazon started that yr to incorporate advertisements inside Prime Video, it instructed subscribers in Australia they would wish to pay a further price every month with a view to preserve the service freed from advertisements, driving the month-to-month value as much as 12.99 Australian {dollars}.
At that time, the ACCC stated over 850,000 folks in Australia had already paid for a yr’s price of Prime service.
“These subscribers had been supplied with a degraded, ad-supported Prime Video service for the steadiness of their pay as you go time period until they paid for the ad-free possibility”, the ACCC added in a submitting.
The ACCC stated Amazon did this by counting on 5 unfair phrases in contracts with over 1,000,000 prospects signed between 1 November 2023 and 18 August 2025.
“These contracts included 5 phrases allowing [Amazon Australia] to unilaterally make materially antagonistic adjustments to its providers (together with, however not restricted to, Prime Video) and the phrases governing these providers, with none contractual entitlement for subscribers to obtain refunds or different significant redress,” the ACCC stated.
Amazon’s therapy of its customers has come beneath authorities scrutiny earlier than.
Within the US, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) lately has taken authorized motion in opposition to Amazon on claims that the corporate would signal folks up for Prime with out their consent, after which make it tough for folks to cancel a subscription.
The corporate on Tuesday additionally agreed to pay an FTC effective to resolve claims that it created a “Kafkaesque ordeal” for individuals who had been victims of on-line procuring fraud.
Within the UK, the federal government has beforehand investigated Amazon’s methodology of itemizing items on the market, and the proliferation of pretend opinions of merchandise.
