It is in really poor taste that Amazon went with advertisements when people have already paid for a year of membership with Prime ad free being included as a perk at time of purchase. And the article below lays out the lawsuit, but I was unaware of this blasphemous show Hazbin Hotel. So it prompted me to cancel our membership when the year runs out, but you also have the option to cancel today and get a partial refund. I’ve seen reports that their investment in programming for Prime Video is one of the major reasons they’ve changed the Prime membership price from $99 to $139 a year now. We actually don’t watch that much on Prime Video, so I was already thinking about not renewing because the fee is just too high for what they provide. Consequently, Jeff Bezos was inspired by Costco that makes most of their money with membership fees so this hits Amazon’s bottom line and sends a message when you cancel, not to mention they’re desperate to get an extra $2.99 a month out of you by these tactics.
By Bryan Chai
Remember when streaming was championed as a cheaper, ad-free alternative to traditional cable?
Those were the days.
Those days appear long gone… and Amazon Prime Video may be the first to pay the price for this at least based on a potential lawsuit that the tech titan could be facing.
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, a proposed class action lawsuit against Amazon was filed on Feb. 9 in a California federal court.
The source of the grievance? Money and ads.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon misled Prime subscribers by including an additional fee to watch movies and television shows on the service without ads.
The issue arose when Amazon made the controversial decision to flip all Prime subscribers to their ad-supported tier.
Before that change, which was implemented in 2023, Amazon’s 100 million-plus Prime subscriber base had default access to the ad-free tier of streaming.
Prime subscribers (for the unaware, that service tier was originally meant to expedite shipping before it began to include the video streaming) now have to pay an additional $2.99 per month to have ads removed.
The main issue cropped up when people who had already locked in a full-year subscription realized that they were losing something they had “already paid for.”
“Subscribers must now pay extra to get something they already paid for,” the complaint claims.
The lawsuit also grills Amazon for illegally benefiting via claims that Prime Video was “commercial-free.”
The proposed class action is seeking $5 million and stopping Amazon from touting further services as “commercial-free.”
While Amazon is assuredly waiting for whatever’s next with this class action, the retail conglomerate has a pair of ongoing headaches to contend with regardless of what’s next.
First, Amazon has already angered a good chunk of its Prime Video audience with the reveal of “Hazbin Hotel.”
That cartoon hews dangerously close to glorifying satanism, and it’s little surprise that more sensible-minded consumers ditched the streaming platform after its unveiling.
But for those willing to overlook the Lucifer-centric cartoon, Amazon’s other major ongoing issue is another matter of nickel and diming.
Amazon Prime Video drops Dolby Vision and Atmos unless you pay extra https://t.co/VRCNXb0kYo
— The Verge (@verge) February 13, 2024
As The Verge reported, Amazon Prime Video has also dropped its higher-end audio options… unless, of course, you’re willing to pay that extra $2.99 for a nicer Prime Video tier.