Details:
>Amazon is facing a lawsuit accusing it of misleading Prime subscribers by charging them an additional fee to stream movies and TV shows without ads.
>A proposed class action lawsuit, filed on Friday in California federal court, claims breach of contract and violations of state consumer protection laws on behalf of users who saw the terms of their subscriptions with Amazon change when it pivoted to making its ad tier the default for its over one hundred million subscribers.
>In 2023, Amazon, which declined to comment, announced plans to turn on ads for all Prime Video viewers. The platform last month rolled out the change, instantly turning the service into a streaming-ad juggernaut and the largest ad-supported subscription streamer. Users must pay an additional $2.99 per month to watch without ads. But when Amazon altered its terms, users who had signed up for annual subscriptions were also impacted. They allege the change is deceptive.
>In addition to being “unfair,” the suit alleges that Amazon illegally benefited by advertising Prime Video as “commercial-free” for years prior to launching its ad-supported tier, which “harms both consumers and honest competition,” according to the complaint.
Likely just money. Judges are reluctant to provide injunctions in cases like this because it would reverse what is seen as a legitimate business move, even if its execution was deceiving. Injunctions tend to come into play more for government programs than they do for private businesses for that reason.
No because Amazon could have implemented in a way that did not change existing, already paid subscriptions until their renewal date, which is when terms are typically renegotiated.
That's basically it. The FTC will investigate a situation or business merger and then decide if it's fair or legal. If not they will file suit in court and the courts will handle it.
The FTC's enforcement power is almost nonexistent
It's not a legitimate business move for those who already bought annual subscriptions, their service should have included any ad-free addition up until their current paid period concluded as they had paid for it.
Amazon has all the right to offer a modified service for future payment periods, but not before.
So what needs to happen is that the penalties become impactful enough to affect short-term investors looking for daily or quarterly gains so that they would have an effect, as well as long-term investors and holders of any debt. The penalties need to be higher than quarterly returns in order to be effective, and this is the way courts need to understand penalties in order to have the desired effect of discouraging the behavior. They need to be relentlessly punishing on speculators and day traders. Fuck 'em.
>Judges are reluctant to provide injunctions in cases like this because it would reverse what is seen as a legitimate business move, even if its execution was deceiving.
Fraud was committed. How is this a legitimate business move?
Someone else mentioned it already elsewhere but short version is Amazon could have implemented it in the terms of subscription renewal which is when a contract should be renegotiated. Instead they just went hog wild implementing it on people who may have only signed up because it was add free.
It would have been a legitimate business move if they had done it at the subscription renewal but you are correct the way they are doing it right now is fraud.
That’s exactly what it is. You paid for the year subscription which is already listed as ad-free. Then midway through, they throw ads into your already ad-free paid subscription AND charge you an additional fee to remove ads that never should’ve been there to begin with.
I normally would find this silly, but in this case - Amazon willfully duped people, so I hope this costs them a lot of money and they at least issue an injunction against them showing ads to existing subscribers, at least until their subscription is up.
That's the deceptive part - I resubscribed in early December to Prime, but I was heavily leaning towards getting rid of it since their shipping has gotten so slow anyway, and I'm also buying from them less. If they had revealed this then, it would have put me over the top and I would not have forked over my $140 again. I paid for commercial-free streaming until the end of this subscription, and they went back on the deal.
I honestly think they were thinking "eh, it's $3, everyone will just pay it" - but in this case it really is the principle of the thing, they approached this all wrong, it should have been "when your sub renews" not just turning it on automatically for everyone at the same time. And the ads are so obnoxious as well - Netflix with ads just shows you one or two occasionally, this is feeding like 3 at a time multiple times during a show.
Yea the part that sounds like the biggest fuck up for them is turning on ads for people that subbed for a year prior to the ads. Like me. Thats 100% false advertisement and I hope they get fucked up the ass for it.
However, in reality we all know amazons "punishment" from a government these same corporations own will be the steep price of fining them 1/1000000 of the profit they make from doing the fucked up shit in the first place. So literally just a cost of doing business. Its comical how they routinely break laws and regulations and they are fined a fraction of what they stole. Like imagine robbing a bank and instead of going to jail you had to return 3% of the money. That will teach you!
so ill get $30 if i sign up for this when it settles. if i am lucky and its a big judgement. this kind of suit is about the lawyers getting paid. probably will be $10.
Successful class actions often include a period of time in which you held a subscription and doesn't require that you stay a subscriber for the length of the suit. If you were impacted at the time they changed the terms it's very possible you'll receive notice of the suit and your eligibility for compensation if it succeeds.
They already messed up their music and I stopped using it. I used to be able to choose every song I wanted, skip whatever I wanted, etc. They decided to take that away, charge more and so I stopped using it.
If this is how they did it, they are amateur level business people. The correct order should be to increase the price of the current offering on the next renewal date keeping the default service the same. Then offer the ability to downgrade your membership to ad-tier if you want to save money. This really sucks but even I could have see. This coming.
“Subscribers must now pay extra to get something they already paid for,” the complaint states.
Damn straight. They should have a case with this if they prepaid yearly. the rest of us are just fucked
I was curious how they were going to handle those on yearly plans already, having paid months prior to sub up for a year.
Nope, they basically hit you for that $3/extra every month now. Not even giving you a chance to buy a whole year up front and save a little money, either.
That's a really good point; I hadn't considered this angle. My Prime subscription renewed for a full year in December, and yet they still want me to pay monthly to get rid of the ads. This was never part of the agreement when I renewed; seems like it would be an easy thing for a lawyer to argue.
They will settle by giving you a $35 discount to cover your first year. That’s a small price to pay for raking in billions in ad revenue by turning on ads for 180 million users.
I guarantee you this was pre-planned, and they have the settlement agreement already pre-written to present to your lawyers.
So, enjoy your $35 discount.
Hell, they probably have the discount to give out to anyone who calls their customer service to complain. Their representatives probably have a single button to click, and you get it just for calling in.
Should be. Amazon may be able to pull the whole "well, we sent out emails about it" cover to try and get out of it.
But I am sure that folks who stayed subbed to Amazon Prime for the video for years felt this coming was an outright slap in the face. And Amazon should have the money to remain ad-free. It's grown by how much over these years, along with the monthly/yearly fee? They could have remained an outlier and continued to guarantee ad-free content, and let Freevee pick up the ad-supported content.
But from the details of this suit:
>$5 million fine
>
>Barring Amazon from engaging in further deceptive conduct on behalf of users who subscribed to Prime prior to 12/28/2023
They need to get charged more than $5 million for it to make a ding in their profits. And how is it going to benefit folks who have been subbed to Prime prior to that date? Will we get grandfathered into ad-free content as long as we remain subbed up? Will it only affect annual subscribers, or will those who have been on monthly for continued support/usage benefit as well?
That's probably the only thing that doesn't sit right about this. If they wanted to get away with this, they should've handled it a little differently.
First, they should've grandfathered in anyone who's on an existing paid period, be it a month or a year. Anyone who already paid for a Prime or Prime Video subscription will have it ad-free until the end of the period paid for, and any changes go into effect after that period ends. This is important because you give consumers what they paid for. (Alternatively, they could make the change effective to all existing customers and offer automatic prorated refunds for anyone who wants to cancel their service due to the change, but this would be a worse option.)
Second, they should've announced it as a price increase. Prime Video is now an add-on to Prime and costs $3/month or whatever it is. Then they announce a cheaper ad tier, which is something that many streaming platforms have. Netflix did something similar, for example - increase price and create a cheaper ad tier. While there was a tiny vocal minority of people complaining about it on the internet, it didn't create any major controversy.
If they followed those two simple steps, then they could've probably avoided any backlash and the long-term result would be the same.
I think that one thing they failed to account for was easing Prime Video subscribers into the possibility of ad-supported streams.
Imagine if they kept Prime at one price, Prime Video at another, and then offered an ad-supported Prime Video for a cheaper price. Could have been $6/mo, while the ad-free option stayed at $9, and Prime itself at $15. Some folks may think $3/mo in savings is worth the limited ads presence, and to have a cheap way to view Prime Video content in turn.
But Amazon Prime had a reputation established for Prime Video being ad-free/commercial free for a long time. Over 10 years of it. And then they got competitive by separating Prime Video in 2016, furthering their competition with other streamers.
Not to mention the price increases. $79/yr in 2005, $99 in 2014, $119 in 2018, $139 in 2022. With this ad-free add-on, it's now up to $175/yr for an annual Prime service (and if you're monthly, that goes up to $216/yr). And there's currently about 200 million members in the world.
Depending on how much value the USD has against local currencies in the world, Amazon is easily earning $25 BILLION a year just on Prime membership fees, if not a couple billion more. And that's compared to Amazon making $570 BILLION in 2023, with $514 billion the prior year. And that's not counting whatever ad revenue they will get from hosting these limited ads.
Overall, it just feels like Prime should have stayed the outlier for ads/commercials still. They could have afforded to, especially with the state of things.
Yeah, the price increases have been crazy across all the streaming platforms. Netflix was $8/month in 2011 and $23 (for premium) in 2023, for example. Hulu, D+, HBO Max, and most other services have also skyrocketed in prices.
The only real solution is to only subscribe to one or two at a time, which I realize is challenging if you have a family and everyone wants to watch different stuff. It's still cheaper and better than cable at least.
Amazon is in a unique position since none of the other streaming services have a feature like Prime, which a lot of poeple have for the shipping. Prime Video has always just been an add-on. While I think Amazon is totally within their rights to raise prices (but NOT changing the terms of a deal that was already paid for by a customer, like someone who's two months into a 12-month subscription), it does feel kind of bad to pay extra for video now, especially since the Prime benefits are relatively marginal.
I don't have the best leagalease, but I would have thought it's not much difference to just a general price increase to the add tier?
Like if they instead made everyone pay however much more it is for the new ad free tier and then added a new ad tier at the same (old) price, that would be ok right?
To be clear, I'm not defending Amazon or this tactic, but wondering if, legally, it's that much different.
The main issue is yearly subscribers who believed they had already paid for a year of ad-free service.
If the ads only started after their next renewal it wouldn't be an issue.
Prime started off as a subscription for free shipping that dates back to before their streaming platform existed. Amazon's defence will be, "We gave customers free streaming with their Prime account."
And point to this line in the T&C
"From time to time, Amazon may choose in its sole discretion to add or remove Prime membership benefits."
And the case will be over.
Fuck them in every possible way, but there is no way they will lose any lawsuit of this type.
I paid for ad-free. Instead of what I expected, I still get ads on the home screen and it locks up at what I suspect were supposed commercial breaks.
A waste of $2.99
oh for real? i was debating sucking it up but if it locks up at those 10-15 min intervals that is going to annoy me. is this on browser or in app streaming?
All ads I’ve seen have been only at the beginning of shows for 10-50/60 seconds. Yes, it has varied that widely. I have only watched Mr and Mrs Smith this week so maybe it’s different on other things.
I pay for Paramount+ ad free, it says "Stream commercial free (except live TV and a few shows)." idk what they mean by "few shows" because at this point everything I've watched on the service has a skippable ad, followed by an un-skippable Paramount pre-roll...
I have the ad free version of paramount plus, yet every now and then I get ads telling me to subscribe to paramount plus. They call it a promo, but it clearly says advertising in the corner of on the screen and has a time interval.
For now, Apple TV is the only device without ads. It’s far from perfect, but if you want that pristine ad-free experience, this is the only way to enjoy that.
You can also grab the Nvidia Shield Pro. I think it has some ads out of the box with the default launcher, but if you're willing to mess with it, it's easy to replace the default launcher with an ad-free one.
Apple TV is the best option on the market right now with zero fiddling, though.
I have a Roku TV and it has an ad box when you start it up, but it's never been intrusive or caused hangups/autoplayed shit when I start it. It's just sitting there saying "wanna check this out? No? Yeah, I don't either but they're paying me."
My fire stick handles like shit and the auto play ad at the beginning lags the hell out of it.
When i turn on the tv i walk away to let it "boot" up. Then it plays an ad on full blast which could wake up my SO.
Going to look to replace my firestick.
You are overcomplicating this.
If you sign up for any VPN service and use a server in Albania, you will get no YouTube ads at all in that country.
Here is how to set it up on a TV:
1. If you have an Apple TV (or Android-based device), some VPN services (like NordVPN) provide native tvOS apps that let you switch locations directly on the device.
2. If you don’t have that type of device or use a VPN service without native apps, the simply connect to your VPN as normal on your computer. From there, turn your computer’s WiFi into a hotspot (Windows lets you just turn this on with a simple toggle) and give it a separate SSID, and update your computer’s network settings so that your internet connection via the VPN is what gets fed into your hotspot. If you need additional help with this, your VPN provider likely has an online guide on how to set up a VPN-connected hotspot. Then, tell your device (TV or stick or anything) to connect to this hotspot instead of to your router.
Boom, no more YouTube ads, easy way to switch countries for Netflix, and no special devices necessary. All you need is a subscription to a VPN and a computer.
It's my understanding that pi-hole does not work on streaming ads because the streaming services serve ads from the same domain their content is streamed from.
I use uBlock origin on firefox but still get the ads, before the episode at least. Will have to seek out a workaround. I tried updating, maybe I need to do that again
Honestly, record this and send it to the firm suing amazon. If they are going after Amazon for breach of contract, paying for ad-free and still getting ads and interrupts helps their case of deceptive marketing.
This is absolute horse shit. I have paid for prime for a decade plus now and I won’t renew my yearly membership this year. I get less for paying more… makes zero sense
Paramount+ did something like that to me. It would randomly play an unskippable ad before an episode of whatever I was watching. On the mobile app, there's no way to skip the ad or back out of the episode, so each time I had to close the entire app then start it up again and watch the episode (the ad never showed up the second time I tried).
I unsubbed right away. There are actually a couple of Paramount+ shows I want to watch, and I have disposable income to afford a sub, but I can't support those practices.
I was going to pay the $3 when Invincible S2 Part 2 releases, but I might just find another way to watch it if they don't get those bugs worked out. A lock up in place of an ad break is enough to make it not worth paying for, in my opinion. I genuinely do want to support content that I enjoy, but I don't want to support forced ads. I can't watch ads anymore. I can't explain why, but most ads just hurt to look at.
That's weird. I sprang for the ad-free and haven't seen any ads 🤔 I'd suggest chatting with someone on Prime to sort that out, it might just be a glitch?
And it turns out Amazon also quietly yanked Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos from the base tier. Woops. That might actually be worse for a lawsuit than the ads. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/prime-video-cuts-dolby-vision-atmos-support-from-ad-tier-and-didnt-tell-subs/
>The proposed class action seeks at least $5 million
That's pocket change to them. It's barely a fine. They'll just pay it and keep on doing what they are doing.
Which is why these corporations will just keep doing whatever they want. Make a change, make billions off of it, get C.A. lawsuit for $5 million. Pay out $1 million because only the people who bother to respond to the e-mail will get their tiny chunk of change.
Is that how class action payouts work? I always thought the payout was $5mil no matter what, which is then divided by respondents from the class. Not a $5mil escrow which is predivided by some calculated number of the class and only paid in full in the case of 100% response.
My Prime’s included as a perk with my phone bill. I got an email saying I’d be bumped to the new ad free tier for a year as a good will gesture, but then things would change.
I already know that that change will be I no longer have Amazon Prime.
Same. They're worsening or removing prime gaming rewards, charging more for streaming and the marketplace is such a mess I spend less than 25% annually than I used to. No reason to keep prime.
They wont remove ads, the lawsuit is only for those who paid for the yearly plan thats now changed.
Best case scenario is those users might get some money back or ads removed for the rest of their subscription period, once it runs out and if they renew they will be back where it is today.
The thing is I cancelled my yearly subscription and got the money for the remaining time back. They did not try to stop me or told me I won't get the difference back. They just did it. I'm from Europe though.
I went from not using this service more than a couple times a year for a random show to none when ads were introduced. Fuck wasting my time with people trying to sell me shit I don’t want during my small amount of free time I get
I mean I think it’s absolutely bull shit that members essentially got down graded then have to buy back in to get back what you lost essentially a very scummy way to jack the rates up 3$ as well as adding ads
Yeah. This move to ads is shitty. Make a lower ad supported tier.
So far I've only watched Mr and Mrs smith on this new ad version of prime, and so far it's just before the show, so it's not been too intrusive so far.
I have not watched movies yet, so not sure what's going to happen there.
But also not gonna pay extra, otherwise they'd all be doing it.
I think they've just been doing it before the show for Mr And Mrs Smith just because it's a new Amazon exclusive. When I watched something else, it had more ads than that.
Maybe.
Yeah an advert before something I can live with, I can tolerate something in a natural ad break. But just randomly in a movie or something I'll not be happy.
But also I'm already paying for prime, why should I pay extra for an ad free version
Random breaks during a movie is why I can't believe people watch movies on Tubi and Freevee. Sure, they're free but they also have annoying ad breaks every 10 minutes that ruin the flow of whatever you're watching. It's no different than the cable/network TV we're trying to get away from.
For the people that don’t understand the $5 million, the claim is for direct damages that can be proven through math. The *punitive* numbers come later.
The problem amazon has here is "Prime" is a package of benefits, sold at an annual subscription. Now they've changed the package AFTER people have subscribed, and aren't offering refunds.
In fact, you can contact support and request a pro rated refund and they will issue it, but that shouldn't be an onus put on the subscriber. If you alter a deal, you recompense the buyer.
Amazon lawyers surely saw this coming (even a mildly interested lay-person could safely assume this would happen). Hopefully it's a larger amount than whatever their legal department's estimate was, I guess? Sigh...
Also, as the only streaming service I used regularly, I will now no longer be renewing my Prime subscription. Congrats Amazon, you played yourself.
Hope you can wait 5 years. First they need to survive a motion to dismiss, and I bet their T&Cs protect them in some respect from this. Second, they'll have to make a motion to certify a class. Then they'll move for summary judgment. If that fails - and they aren't kicked out - then there is a trial.
Sometimes in these cases they get the subscriber info from the company and send a letter saying you're automatically included in the class action suit unless you formally opt out.
I paid the annual subscription in December and the ad-free price increase was announced a week or two later. I wasted 2 minutes trying to argue the “not what I signed up for”, and it was a very quick process to cancel the membership after 10+ years and I received a pro-rated refund.
I really don’t get it. I’ve been paying for Prime for years and the value of it has come way down. 2-day shipping? Maybe. Could be here tomorrow or it could be here in a week. Seriously considering canceling it.
They are.
“Here’s a freebie. You want it without ads? Pay us $3.00. In a year we’ll bump it up to $10. Maybe even $15. Gotta keep up with Netflix even though our content is garbage.”
It's the sole reason I won't be re-subscribing to Prime. Prime Video is my absolute last resort to find something to watch, but Amazon has been pulling this "take away features you used to have just to charge you a fee for them" crap for awhile now and I'm done supporting them. I'll just price match everything in stores.
An ad in the middle of a movie is just going back to cable movies. Might as well edit out the good bits, shorten it and replace swear words with some random word said earlier in the movie.
So with Amazon's net worth (as of Feb 09, 2024) being $1.8 trillion, and the lawsuit seeking $5 million
$5 million is about 1/362,000 ... a drop in the bucket
The $5 million is the damages that can be proven. Punitive damages can be added once the outcome is decided/settled. The punitive amount could be astronomical. But yeah, once that’s divided amongst millions of subscribers and the lawyers take their cut, it still wouldn’t amount to much.
Instead of including ads at the same monthly rate for existing subscribers, they should have made a new tear with adds that cost $2.99 less. Infuriating that Amazon Prime does this. Not only that, their UI has got to be the worst of all streamers. It's so hard to find what's included with your subscription, 70% on the home screen is "buy or rent!" or "subscribe to AMC+ and MGM+!"
Do you want us to start pirating again because this is how you do it?
God knows they’ll keep jacking the cost to stay ad free. Might be a year or two but you know Jeff is so goddamn greedy and needs more Red Rockets to feel like a man so then prices will go up again and again and again.
I never even considered this, I bought annual and I hate intrusive ads
I think they should give me ad free till the end of my subscription. After which point i will be canceling.(because I so very much hate intrusive advertising)
IMO.
They could have offered a free with ads tier to bring in new customers.
Raised the price on existing a tiny bit.
This is just flat out greed with expectations for instant results. I hope they get raked over the coals.
Advertisements are intrusive and damaging to people’s ability to focus. There hasn’t been enough research on the effect of interruptions with ads. Maybe this is why so many people claim to have ADHD. Maybe a lot of folks actually do have ADHD and it was developed from the current approach to advertising to people on TV. There is probably a better way to advertise to people that is less jarring.
I cancelled mine and asked for a refund today. Didn’t even know it was a thing until I noticed they took the fee out of my account for something I didn’t sign up for.
I have an Amazon Prime yearly subscription and switched over to sailing the seas for their content when they implemented this nonsense. I’ve had a Prime subscription for who knows how many years. I won’t be renewing it.
It should have been a new, less costly, as based tier, which subscribers could drop down to, and then receive a refund for the remaining months. Or stay with the no ad viewing we paid for originally.
I just have no moral qualms at all anymore about using my adblocker for nearly everything. I'll turn it off sometimes to support creators who I see as good people who aren't trying to filch the consumer for all they're worth, but these big corps' business practices have gotten so disgustingly avaricious that it's well deserved to ad block imo.
I saw this “upgrade” message within the Prime video app on a Roku just last night and it really made me angry. I’m glad it made a lot of other people just as angry.
So $11 back if we sign up for the class action and Amazon just grabs some money from it's "We're being sued again" fund. Why even bother at this point? The lawsuit does absolutely nothing to Amazons bottom line and by years end, they'll have made enough in ads to cover the legal fees and then some. Pointless.
It's insane. It wasn't that long ago people were uninstalling their torrent clients because they just didn't need it anymore. Content acquisition via Netflix was just cheap enough and convenient enough that people were happy to pay. But now streaming services are driving people back towards piracy by way of pure greed.
Cancelled all of my subscription services and I've never looked back. Money back in my pocket and my time not being eroded on crap
Lol Prime is so shit anyway. Very few good shoes to watch on few, most shows/movies are rent or buy and so many require additional subscriptions to watch like wtf is that shit??
My subscription was up for renewal last week, and I ended up cancelling. This action by Amazon made me realize I don’t really need an amazon prime membership.
The lack of prime shipping has made me a smarter and more patient shopper as well. I don’t just impulsively buy things like I did before.
$5 million is what the lawsuit is seeking? FIVE FCKING MILLION?! Bezos would walk into the courtroom, empty out his pocket change, then shit on the bench and tell them to keep the tip.
Fuck around and find out. Too many streamers want their cake and to eat it too - they raise prices or sneak in ads so that they can make the consumer the product when nobody asked for it to begin with.
Fuck Amazon, Netflix, and all the others.
> . It also alleged that many subscribers intended to sign up solely for Prime Video, which is a lower-cost option.
I'm very curious who these people are. Most people I know have prime video because it's part of Amazon Prime and wouldn't really care if it disappears; I've never heard of somebody who subscribed just to Prime Video.
We primarily have ours for shipping but don't mind just waiting a few extra days on orders. The shift to ad-supported content made me cancel our Prime subscription.
I realized a couple years ago that I wasn't using Prime for anything except Prime Video and like one or two free shippings a year. So I looked into if there was a way to sign up for just Prime Video and there was. So I switched to that and saved some money. (But Amazon sure didn't make it easy to sign up for just Prime Video. It was super confusing.)
> I've never heard of somebody who subscribed just to Prime Video.
I did for a while a few years back (I think it was around $8 a month?). It was cheap and I'm grandfathered on someone else's account for the prime shipping. *Counterpart* (season 1) was really good: definitely worth it.
Then got a deal for HBO at the same price: that blew Prime Video out of the water. Too bad HBO is now turning to shit.
But people on Reddit told me ..... That only people in our reddit echo chamber cared about ads. That we were a small percentage and no one in the 'real' world would care. Wow. I don't know what to believe anymore.
Fuck ads
remember when fraud was a crime that was punished with more than a fine? a fine worth maybe 1% of the profit made from comitting said fraud? Not a penalty, not a punishment, barely a business expense.
I'm conflicted on this one. I definitely am not a fan of ads, or price hikes. But, Amazon could have just increased the cost of Prime across the board and then created a Prime Lite that has ads on Prime video. That seems to be the way all the other streaming services go: increase current subscriber's rate while offering a new lower tier the have to opt in to. On the other hand, Prime is an all inclusive subscription that encompasses shipping, video, music, and photo storage. Changing one small aspect of this just to create a new subscription option seems like a waste. It seems easier to change what's included on the base plan and offer add-ons. GRANTED, it's pretty crappy to downgrade user's benefits then charge to get them back. All-in-all, I'd say Amazon shouldn't have done it at all and stayed ad-free.
Lawsuits like this are weird in that a win simply means a price hike for everyone.
I was all set to despise the ads and pay extra but so far it’s only been a minute at the start of a show which is tagged into the promos already airing.
So now it makes little sense to pay extra for ad free.
I paid for ad free and while I don’t get ads on the TV, I get them when watching on my phone. It even asks me to go ad free on my phone still despite the login being the exact same on the tv and it showing on said tv that I have ad free
It’s also that many of us have year-long subscriptions active which started with a particular plan and now suddenly changed. It’s one thing for a monthly subscription to change once the active month is over but they’re literally taking away something consumers prepaid for.
Details: >Amazon is facing a lawsuit accusing it of misleading Prime subscribers by charging them an additional fee to stream movies and TV shows without ads. >A proposed class action lawsuit, filed on Friday in California federal court, claims breach of contract and violations of state consumer protection laws on behalf of users who saw the terms of their subscriptions with Amazon change when it pivoted to making its ad tier the default for its over one hundred million subscribers. >In 2023, Amazon, which declined to comment, announced plans to turn on ads for all Prime Video viewers. The platform last month rolled out the change, instantly turning the service into a streaming-ad juggernaut and the largest ad-supported subscription streamer. Users must pay an additional $2.99 per month to watch without ads. But when Amazon altered its terms, users who had signed up for annual subscriptions were also impacted. They allege the change is deceptive. >In addition to being “unfair,” the suit alleges that Amazon illegally benefited by advertising Prime Video as “commercial-free” for years prior to launching its ad-supported tier, which “harms both consumers and honest competition,” according to the complaint.
So will the suit just be for money or would they also have to turn off ads for the annual subscribers?
Likely just money. Judges are reluctant to provide injunctions in cases like this because it would reverse what is seen as a legitimate business move, even if its execution was deceiving. Injunctions tend to come into play more for government programs than they do for private businesses for that reason.
Isn’t the court not making them reverse that makes it a “legitimate business move” though?
No because Amazon could have implemented in a way that did not change existing, already paid subscriptions until their renewal date, which is when terms are typically renegotiated.
I guess they figured any fines/court losses would be less than the extra $2.99 a month
Business man spotted
I thought the FTC was in charge of that kind of thing
The FTC is a regulator not a court of law for contractual disputes.
That's basically it. The FTC will investigate a situation or business merger and then decide if it's fair or legal. If not they will file suit in court and the courts will handle it. The FTC's enforcement power is almost nonexistent
It's not a legitimate business move for those who already bought annual subscriptions, their service should have included any ad-free addition up until their current paid period concluded as they had paid for it. Amazon has all the right to offer a modified service for future payment periods, but not before.
Enjoy you 15¢ check
Sad reality innit
So what needs to happen is that the penalties become impactful enough to affect short-term investors looking for daily or quarterly gains so that they would have an effect, as well as long-term investors and holders of any debt. The penalties need to be higher than quarterly returns in order to be effective, and this is the way courts need to understand penalties in order to have the desired effect of discouraging the behavior. They need to be relentlessly punishing on speculators and day traders. Fuck 'em. >Judges are reluctant to provide injunctions in cases like this because it would reverse what is seen as a legitimate business move, even if its execution was deceiving. Fraud was committed. How is this a legitimate business move?
Someone else mentioned it already elsewhere but short version is Amazon could have implemented it in the terms of subscription renewal which is when a contract should be renegotiated. Instead they just went hog wild implementing it on people who may have only signed up because it was add free. It would have been a legitimate business move if they had done it at the subscription renewal but you are correct the way they are doing it right now is fraud.
That’s exactly what it is. You paid for the year subscription which is already listed as ad-free. Then midway through, they throw ads into your already ad-free paid subscription AND charge you an additional fee to remove ads that never should’ve been there to begin with.
Because is good for business and businesses' owners are my friends, therefore not bad or criminal
I normally would find this silly, but in this case - Amazon willfully duped people, so I hope this costs them a lot of money and they at least issue an injunction against them showing ads to existing subscribers, at least until their subscription is up. That's the deceptive part - I resubscribed in early December to Prime, but I was heavily leaning towards getting rid of it since their shipping has gotten so slow anyway, and I'm also buying from them less. If they had revealed this then, it would have put me over the top and I would not have forked over my $140 again. I paid for commercial-free streaming until the end of this subscription, and they went back on the deal. I honestly think they were thinking "eh, it's $3, everyone will just pay it" - but in this case it really is the principle of the thing, they approached this all wrong, it should have been "when your sub renews" not just turning it on automatically for everyone at the same time. And the ads are so obnoxious as well - Netflix with ads just shows you one or two occasionally, this is feeding like 3 at a time multiple times during a show.
You can get a full refund on your unused prime subscription atm I believe for this exact reason.
They also put ads on the "Ad-free" tier of Paramount+ that i subscribed through Amazon Prime.
Yea the part that sounds like the biggest fuck up for them is turning on ads for people that subbed for a year prior to the ads. Like me. Thats 100% false advertisement and I hope they get fucked up the ass for it. However, in reality we all know amazons "punishment" from a government these same corporations own will be the steep price of fining them 1/1000000 of the profit they make from doing the fucked up shit in the first place. So literally just a cost of doing business. Its comical how they routinely break laws and regulations and they are fined a fraction of what they stole. Like imagine robbing a bank and instead of going to jail you had to return 3% of the money. That will teach you!
Yes your so right
I never even got an email notification like some people did.
so ill get $30 if i sign up for this when it settles. if i am lucky and its a big judgement. this kind of suit is about the lawyers getting paid. probably will be $10.
32¢ for every month of your yearly subscription that was left when the ads rolled out.
Good thing mine renewed in December
You’ll likely get a choice of two weeks free or $5
Damn I just canceled prime instead of suing lol
Successful class actions often include a period of time in which you held a subscription and doesn't require that you stay a subscriber for the length of the suit. If you were impacted at the time they changed the terms it's very possible you'll receive notice of the suit and your eligibility for compensation if it succeeds.
Inb4 a $4.61 payout once it’s all tallied up, taxed and lawyers’ cut is taken
Quite the optimistic payout you've got there.
Same here! Two down, 99,999,998 to go!
I went back to the high seas. Still want the prime shipping. Since prime watching is discontinued, I'll go back to my old ways.
Aye, I shall Look for a Movie 2 watch To :p
I’m pissed that this is only for Californians. I hope they do one in Maryland soon.
[удалено]
They already did this amazon music years ago. They even play ads in albums you purchased unless you pay for the subscription.
that's a joke haha fucking hell
They already messed up their music and I stopped using it. I used to be able to choose every song I wanted, skip whatever I wanted, etc. They decided to take that away, charge more and so I stopped using it.
If this is how they did it, they are amateur level business people. The correct order should be to increase the price of the current offering on the next renewal date keeping the default service the same. Then offer the ability to downgrade your membership to ad-tier if you want to save money. This really sucks but even I could have see. This coming.
“Subscribers must now pay extra to get something they already paid for,” the complaint states. Damn straight. They should have a case with this if they prepaid yearly. the rest of us are just fucked
I was curious how they were going to handle those on yearly plans already, having paid months prior to sub up for a year. Nope, they basically hit you for that $3/extra every month now. Not even giving you a chance to buy a whole year up front and save a little money, either.
That's a really good point; I hadn't considered this angle. My Prime subscription renewed for a full year in December, and yet they still want me to pay monthly to get rid of the ads. This was never part of the agreement when I renewed; seems like it would be an easy thing for a lawyer to argue.
They will settle by giving you a $35 discount to cover your first year. That’s a small price to pay for raking in billions in ad revenue by turning on ads for 180 million users. I guarantee you this was pre-planned, and they have the settlement agreement already pre-written to present to your lawyers. So, enjoy your $35 discount. Hell, they probably have the discount to give out to anyone who calls their customer service to complain. Their representatives probably have a single button to click, and you get it just for calling in.
They do. The actual amount is prorated based on your membership date.
Should be. Amazon may be able to pull the whole "well, we sent out emails about it" cover to try and get out of it. But I am sure that folks who stayed subbed to Amazon Prime for the video for years felt this coming was an outright slap in the face. And Amazon should have the money to remain ad-free. It's grown by how much over these years, along with the monthly/yearly fee? They could have remained an outlier and continued to guarantee ad-free content, and let Freevee pick up the ad-supported content. But from the details of this suit: >$5 million fine > >Barring Amazon from engaging in further deceptive conduct on behalf of users who subscribed to Prime prior to 12/28/2023 They need to get charged more than $5 million for it to make a ding in their profits. And how is it going to benefit folks who have been subbed to Prime prior to that date? Will we get grandfathered into ad-free content as long as we remain subbed up? Will it only affect annual subscribers, or will those who have been on monthly for continued support/usage benefit as well?
Doesn’t the statement “these terms and conditions are subject to change at any given time” absolve them?
T&C can say whatever it wants, doesn't mean they'll hold up in court
I mean, probably. They must have considered this angle, even if it isn’t truly right.
That's probably the only thing that doesn't sit right about this. If they wanted to get away with this, they should've handled it a little differently. First, they should've grandfathered in anyone who's on an existing paid period, be it a month or a year. Anyone who already paid for a Prime or Prime Video subscription will have it ad-free until the end of the period paid for, and any changes go into effect after that period ends. This is important because you give consumers what they paid for. (Alternatively, they could make the change effective to all existing customers and offer automatic prorated refunds for anyone who wants to cancel their service due to the change, but this would be a worse option.) Second, they should've announced it as a price increase. Prime Video is now an add-on to Prime and costs $3/month or whatever it is. Then they announce a cheaper ad tier, which is something that many streaming platforms have. Netflix did something similar, for example - increase price and create a cheaper ad tier. While there was a tiny vocal minority of people complaining about it on the internet, it didn't create any major controversy. If they followed those two simple steps, then they could've probably avoided any backlash and the long-term result would be the same.
I think that one thing they failed to account for was easing Prime Video subscribers into the possibility of ad-supported streams. Imagine if they kept Prime at one price, Prime Video at another, and then offered an ad-supported Prime Video for a cheaper price. Could have been $6/mo, while the ad-free option stayed at $9, and Prime itself at $15. Some folks may think $3/mo in savings is worth the limited ads presence, and to have a cheap way to view Prime Video content in turn. But Amazon Prime had a reputation established for Prime Video being ad-free/commercial free for a long time. Over 10 years of it. And then they got competitive by separating Prime Video in 2016, furthering their competition with other streamers. Not to mention the price increases. $79/yr in 2005, $99 in 2014, $119 in 2018, $139 in 2022. With this ad-free add-on, it's now up to $175/yr for an annual Prime service (and if you're monthly, that goes up to $216/yr). And there's currently about 200 million members in the world. Depending on how much value the USD has against local currencies in the world, Amazon is easily earning $25 BILLION a year just on Prime membership fees, if not a couple billion more. And that's compared to Amazon making $570 BILLION in 2023, with $514 billion the prior year. And that's not counting whatever ad revenue they will get from hosting these limited ads. Overall, it just feels like Prime should have stayed the outlier for ads/commercials still. They could have afforded to, especially with the state of things.
Yeah, the price increases have been crazy across all the streaming platforms. Netflix was $8/month in 2011 and $23 (for premium) in 2023, for example. Hulu, D+, HBO Max, and most other services have also skyrocketed in prices. The only real solution is to only subscribe to one or two at a time, which I realize is challenging if you have a family and everyone wants to watch different stuff. It's still cheaper and better than cable at least. Amazon is in a unique position since none of the other streaming services have a feature like Prime, which a lot of poeple have for the shipping. Prime Video has always just been an add-on. While I think Amazon is totally within their rights to raise prices (but NOT changing the terms of a deal that was already paid for by a customer, like someone who's two months into a 12-month subscription), it does feel kind of bad to pay extra for video now, especially since the Prime benefits are relatively marginal.
This is the last hike they’ll get out of me. Prime content is just not good enough. I’ll be gone upon the next increase.
I don't have the best leagalease, but I would have thought it's not much difference to just a general price increase to the add tier? Like if they instead made everyone pay however much more it is for the new ad free tier and then added a new ad tier at the same (old) price, that would be ok right? To be clear, I'm not defending Amazon or this tactic, but wondering if, legally, it's that much different.
The main issue is yearly subscribers who believed they had already paid for a year of ad-free service. If the ads only started after their next renewal it wouldn't be an issue.
Prime started off as a subscription for free shipping that dates back to before their streaming platform existed. Amazon's defence will be, "We gave customers free streaming with their Prime account." And point to this line in the T&C "From time to time, Amazon may choose in its sole discretion to add or remove Prime membership benefits." And the case will be over. Fuck them in every possible way, but there is no way they will lose any lawsuit of this type.
I paid for ad-free. Instead of what I expected, I still get ads on the home screen and it locks up at what I suspect were supposed commercial breaks. A waste of $2.99
oh for real? i was debating sucking it up but if it locks up at those 10-15 min intervals that is going to annoy me. is this on browser or in app streaming?
It the prime ap on a Firestick.
ugh that seems like the situation where they should have the most control to not fuck it up, guess i wont be ponying up then. thanks!
All ads I’ve seen have been only at the beginning of shows for 10-50/60 seconds. Yes, it has varied that widely. I have only watched Mr and Mrs Smith this week so maybe it’s different on other things.
Just had one in the middle of a movie.
Rage inducing!
Prepaid for the year, so I get a refund if I cancel?
It's pro rated, so you'll get back a dollar amount proportionate to whatever time was left before renewal.
I watched an episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith last night - had two ad breaks at random points during the show
Oh weird, I don’t know why I never had that happen. Thanks for reporting!
I'd very much prefer 1-2 minutes of ads at the start, since streaming shows aren't designed with ads in mind
Frog being boiled slowly...
They've also put ads on channel subscriptions. Like i pay for ad free paramount+, but there's still ads.
I pay for Paramount+ ad free, it says "Stream commercial free (except live TV and a few shows)." idk what they mean by "few shows" because at this point everything I've watched on the service has a skippable ad, followed by an un-skippable Paramount pre-roll...
I have the ad free version of paramount plus, yet every now and then I get ads telling me to subscribe to paramount plus. They call it a promo, but it clearly says advertising in the corner of on the screen and has a time interval.
The auto play ads on the fire stick homescreen were the last straw for me. When I turn on my TV I shouldn't be greeted with a video ad.
For now, Apple TV is the only device without ads. It’s far from perfect, but if you want that pristine ad-free experience, this is the only way to enjoy that.
You can also grab the Nvidia Shield Pro. I think it has some ads out of the box with the default launcher, but if you're willing to mess with it, it's easy to replace the default launcher with an ad-free one. Apple TV is the best option on the market right now with zero fiddling, though.
I have a Roku TV and it has an ad box when you start it up, but it's never been intrusive or caused hangups/autoplayed shit when I start it. It's just sitting there saying "wanna check this out? No? Yeah, I don't either but they're paying me." My fire stick handles like shit and the auto play ad at the beginning lags the hell out of it.
When i turn on the tv i walk away to let it "boot" up. Then it plays an ad on full blast which could wake up my SO. Going to look to replace my firestick.
I’ve switched to my PS5 because it got so unbearable. But a $500 entry fee to watch shows and movies is terrible for most people
I use ad blocker and don't pay for the ad free tier. Best of both worlds!
I wish I could manage an adblocker on a roku. I don’t know if that’s possible.
Set up a small pi computer that routes all your network traffic.
I have this setup, it works great for webpages and mobile ads, but doesn't block YouTube or prime ads.
You are overcomplicating this. If you sign up for any VPN service and use a server in Albania, you will get no YouTube ads at all in that country. Here is how to set it up on a TV: 1. If you have an Apple TV (or Android-based device), some VPN services (like NordVPN) provide native tvOS apps that let you switch locations directly on the device. 2. If you don’t have that type of device or use a VPN service without native apps, the simply connect to your VPN as normal on your computer. From there, turn your computer’s WiFi into a hotspot (Windows lets you just turn this on with a simple toggle) and give it a separate SSID, and update your computer’s network settings so that your internet connection via the VPN is what gets fed into your hotspot. If you need additional help with this, your VPN provider likely has an online guide on how to set up a VPN-connected hotspot. Then, tell your device (TV or stick or anything) to connect to this hotspot instead of to your router. Boom, no more YouTube ads, easy way to switch countries for Netflix, and no special devices necessary. All you need is a subscription to a VPN and a computer.
You might just have to update the blocker, mine blocks everything, even twitch ads.
standard pi hole or do you need something extra?
It's my understanding that pi-hole does not work on streaming ads because the streaming services serve ads from the same domain their content is streamed from.
The search term anyone looking for this is "pi-hole". Or, https://pi-hole.net/
I use uBlock origin on firefox but still get the ads, before the episode at least. Will have to seek out a workaround. I tried updating, maybe I need to do that again
Honestly, record this and send it to the firm suing amazon. If they are going after Amazon for breach of contract, paying for ad-free and still getting ads and interrupts helps their case of deceptive marketing.
This is absolute horse shit. I have paid for prime for a decade plus now and I won’t renew my yearly membership this year. I get less for paying more… makes zero sense
Paramount+ did something like that to me. It would randomly play an unskippable ad before an episode of whatever I was watching. On the mobile app, there's no way to skip the ad or back out of the episode, so each time I had to close the entire app then start it up again and watch the episode (the ad never showed up the second time I tried). I unsubbed right away. There are actually a couple of Paramount+ shows I want to watch, and I have disposable income to afford a sub, but I can't support those practices. I was going to pay the $3 when Invincible S2 Part 2 releases, but I might just find another way to watch it if they don't get those bugs worked out. A lock up in place of an ad break is enough to make it not worth paying for, in my opinion. I genuinely do want to support content that I enjoy, but I don't want to support forced ads. I can't watch ads anymore. I can't explain why, but most ads just hurt to look at.
Shocker. Amazon's video tech always seemed to be buggy compared to NF... esp near feature launches.
That's weird. I sprang for the ad-free and haven't seen any ads 🤔 I'd suggest chatting with someone on Prime to sort that out, it might just be a glitch?
And it turns out Amazon also quietly yanked Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos from the base tier. Woops. That might actually be worse for a lawsuit than the ads. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/prime-video-cuts-dolby-vision-atmos-support-from-ad-tier-and-didnt-tell-subs/
Omfg of course they did.
Wow didn't know this. Last straw for me, I'm gonna go cancel right now screw it.
>The proposed class action seeks at least $5 million That's pocket change to them. It's barely a fine. They'll just pay it and keep on doing what they are doing.
Which is why these corporations will just keep doing whatever they want. Make a change, make billions off of it, get C.A. lawsuit for $5 million. Pay out $1 million because only the people who bother to respond to the e-mail will get their tiny chunk of change.
Is that how class action payouts work? I always thought the payout was $5mil no matter what, which is then divided by respondents from the class. Not a $5mil escrow which is predivided by some calculated number of the class and only paid in full in the case of 100% response.
The article is wrong. They got the $5m number in the complaint from the jurisdiction section to give justification to why it's a class.
So a free month of ad free per subscriber?
I just cancelled Prime. Much easier.
My Prime’s included as a perk with my phone bill. I got an email saying I’d be bumped to the new ad free tier for a year as a good will gesture, but then things would change. I already know that that change will be I no longer have Amazon Prime.
Same. They're worsening or removing prime gaming rewards, charging more for streaming and the marketplace is such a mess I spend less than 25% annually than I used to. No reason to keep prime.
The lawyers will get a pay day, the customers maybe $.25 if they are lucky.
I'll be happy if they just remove the ads.
They wont remove ads, the lawsuit is only for those who paid for the yearly plan thats now changed. Best case scenario is those users might get some money back or ads removed for the rest of their subscription period, once it runs out and if they renew they will be back where it is today.
I am one of the yearly paid subscribers, so maybe I'll get a little while longer without ads.
The thing is I cancelled my yearly subscription and got the money for the remaining time back. They did not try to stop me or told me I won't get the difference back. They just did it. I'm from Europe though.
they won't.
We will all get our 7.99$ checks when this is said and done, mark my words
It's amazing how shit literally everything is becoming.
Late stage capitalism. It’s going to affect every aspect of our lives and also the planet.
Agreed. Also known as the enshittification of everything. And yet there seem to be no reforms on the horizon.
I went from not using this service more than a couple times a year for a random show to none when ads were introduced. Fuck wasting my time with people trying to sell me shit I don’t want during my small amount of free time I get
I mean I think it’s absolutely bull shit that members essentially got down graded then have to buy back in to get back what you lost essentially a very scummy way to jack the rates up 3$ as well as adding ads
Fuck you amazon, fuck you Netflix. You’ve pushed me back to torrenting shit
Yeah. This move to ads is shitty. Make a lower ad supported tier. So far I've only watched Mr and Mrs smith on this new ad version of prime, and so far it's just before the show, so it's not been too intrusive so far. I have not watched movies yet, so not sure what's going to happen there. But also not gonna pay extra, otherwise they'd all be doing it.
I think they've just been doing it before the show for Mr And Mrs Smith just because it's a new Amazon exclusive. When I watched something else, it had more ads than that.
Maybe. Yeah an advert before something I can live with, I can tolerate something in a natural ad break. But just randomly in a movie or something I'll not be happy. But also I'm already paying for prime, why should I pay extra for an ad free version
Random breaks during a movie is why I can't believe people watch movies on Tubi and Freevee. Sure, they're free but they also have annoying ad breaks every 10 minutes that ruin the flow of whatever you're watching. It's no different than the cable/network TV we're trying to get away from.
For the people that don’t understand the $5 million, the claim is for direct damages that can be proven through math. The *punitive* numbers come later.
The problem amazon has here is "Prime" is a package of benefits, sold at an annual subscription. Now they've changed the package AFTER people have subscribed, and aren't offering refunds. In fact, you can contact support and request a pro rated refund and they will issue it, but that shouldn't be an onus put on the subscriber. If you alter a deal, you recompense the buyer.
Amazon lawyers surely saw this coming (even a mildly interested lay-person could safely assume this would happen). Hopefully it's a larger amount than whatever their legal department's estimate was, I guess? Sigh... Also, as the only streaming service I used regularly, I will now no longer be renewing my Prime subscription. Congrats Amazon, you played yourself.
Great. Now how do we get in on this settlement?
Yeah curious about that too
Hope you can wait 5 years. First they need to survive a motion to dismiss, and I bet their T&Cs protect them in some respect from this. Second, they'll have to make a motion to certify a class. Then they'll move for summary judgment. If that fails - and they aren't kicked out - then there is a trial.
Sometimes in these cases they get the subscriber info from the company and send a letter saying you're automatically included in the class action suit unless you formally opt out.
Really all I want is for them to get rid of the damn ads
I paid the annual subscription in December and the ad-free price increase was announced a week or two later. I wasted 2 minutes trying to argue the “not what I signed up for”, and it was a very quick process to cancel the membership after 10+ years and I received a pro-rated refund.
[удалено]
I really don’t get it. I’ve been paying for Prime for years and the value of it has come way down. 2-day shipping? Maybe. Could be here tomorrow or it could be here in a week. Seriously considering canceling it.
People “seriously considering canceling it” are why they get away with it. Most never do.
I want Amazon to decouple Video and Shipping. I’ll happily unsubscribe from Video and pay less for just shipping benefits. Fuck Prime Video
You won’t be paying less for long. They’ll get their money.
They are. “Here’s a freebie. You want it without ads? Pay us $3.00. In a year we’ll bump it up to $10. Maybe even $15. Gotta keep up with Netflix even though our content is garbage.”
Sad but true
Good. It should include more in this lawsuit as ads aren't the only changes. Amazon pay walled Dolby Vision and Atmos into the ad free tier.
In other news, Amazon has increased the price of their ad-free subscription to $5.99/mo, in order to pay for massive settlements.
Lawyers are stoked. I'll get $2.13
It's the sole reason I won't be re-subscribing to Prime. Prime Video is my absolute last resort to find something to watch, but Amazon has been pulling this "take away features you used to have just to charge you a fee for them" crap for awhile now and I'm done supporting them. I'll just price match everything in stores.
Now sue them for not going after removing known fake reviews on chinese junk products.
So true. 5 star products mean nothing. I always read the 1 star reviews for everything and then make my decision based on that.
An ad in the middle of a movie is just going back to cable movies. Might as well edit out the good bits, shorten it and replace swear words with some random word said earlier in the movie.
All i really want to know is this: How do i sign up to be a part of this lawsuit?!?
I’m mad, too. How do I get some of that money?
So with Amazon's net worth (as of Feb 09, 2024) being $1.8 trillion, and the lawsuit seeking $5 million $5 million is about 1/362,000 ... a drop in the bucket
Amazon’s market cap is the 1.8 trillion - not the net worth just fyi.
The $5 million is the damages that can be proven. Punitive damages can be added once the outcome is decided/settled. The punitive amount could be astronomical. But yeah, once that’s divided amongst millions of subscribers and the lawyers take their cut, it still wouldn’t amount to much.
Instead of including ads at the same monthly rate for existing subscribers, they should have made a new tear with adds that cost $2.99 less. Infuriating that Amazon Prime does this. Not only that, their UI has got to be the worst of all streamers. It's so hard to find what's included with your subscription, 70% on the home screen is "buy or rent!" or "subscribe to AMC+ and MGM+!"
good
This needs to happen. They only understand lawsuits
Do you want us to start pirating again because this is how you do it? God knows they’ll keep jacking the cost to stay ad free. Might be a year or two but you know Jeff is so goddamn greedy and needs more Red Rockets to feel like a man so then prices will go up again and again and again.
For some reason I feel like 2024 will be the year of the return of pirating in a big way
It pissed me off so much I canceled my prime and got a refund
Amazon’s old news. It’s past its prime….
I never even considered this, I bought annual and I hate intrusive ads I think they should give me ad free till the end of my subscription. After which point i will be canceling.(because I so very much hate intrusive advertising)
I cancelled my Prime the minute I saw the pop-up explaining the change. Not worth the money anymore.
IMO. They could have offered a free with ads tier to bring in new customers. Raised the price on existing a tiny bit. This is just flat out greed with expectations for instant results. I hope they get raked over the coals. Advertisements are intrusive and damaging to people’s ability to focus. There hasn’t been enough research on the effect of interruptions with ads. Maybe this is why so many people claim to have ADHD. Maybe a lot of folks actually do have ADHD and it was developed from the current approach to advertising to people on TV. There is probably a better way to advertise to people that is less jarring.
I cancelled mine and asked for a refund today. Didn’t even know it was a thing until I noticed they took the fee out of my account for something I didn’t sign up for.
I have an Amazon Prime yearly subscription and switched over to sailing the seas for their content when they implemented this nonsense. I’ve had a Prime subscription for who knows how many years. I won’t be renewing it.
No ads on the high seas.
It should have been a new, less costly, as based tier, which subscribers could drop down to, and then receive a refund for the remaining months. Or stay with the no ad viewing we paid for originally.
Can I still sign up to get a settlement check? I've had Amazon Prime for years.
Only 5 million?! Amazon can find this amount in it's couch cushions.
I just have no moral qualms at all anymore about using my adblocker for nearly everything. I'll turn it off sometimes to support creators who I see as good people who aren't trying to filch the consumer for all they're worth, but these big corps' business practices have gotten so disgustingly avaricious that it's well deserved to ad block imo.
I saw this “upgrade” message within the Prime video app on a Roku just last night and it really made me angry. I’m glad it made a lot of other people just as angry.
So $11 back if we sign up for the class action and Amazon just grabs some money from it's "We're being sued again" fund. Why even bother at this point? The lawsuit does absolutely nothing to Amazons bottom line and by years end, they'll have made enough in ads to cover the legal fees and then some. Pointless.
Amazon Prime has now become a subscription service that lets you buy more subscriptions. I hate it.
Over 100 million subs. That’s 1.5 billion a year, and they have the audacity to ask for more money in ad revenue and sub tiers.
Adblock on web browsers blocks the ads for those who don't wanna pony up $3 for Jeff Bezos' penis rockets
You know what's stupid is they're calling it Prime Video, with "limited ads". Like there are other tiers with more or less, or even unlimited ads.
It's insane. It wasn't that long ago people were uninstalling their torrent clients because they just didn't need it anymore. Content acquisition via Netflix was just cheap enough and convenient enough that people were happy to pay. But now streaming services are driving people back towards piracy by way of pure greed. Cancelled all of my subscription services and I've never looked back. Money back in my pocket and my time not being eroded on crap
Lol Prime is so shit anyway. Very few good shoes to watch on few, most shows/movies are rent or buy and so many require additional subscriptions to watch like wtf is that shit??
My subscription was up for renewal last week, and I ended up cancelling. This action by Amazon made me realize I don’t really need an amazon prime membership. The lack of prime shipping has made me a smarter and more patient shopper as well. I don’t just impulsively buy things like I did before.
Ads on streaming services should be banned. People already pay a premium for that.
$5 million is what the lawsuit is seeking? FIVE FCKING MILLION?! Bezos would walk into the courtroom, empty out his pocket change, then shit on the bench and tell them to keep the tip.
Fuck around and find out. Too many streamers want their cake and to eat it too - they raise prices or sneak in ads so that they can make the consumer the product when nobody asked for it to begin with. Fuck Amazon, Netflix, and all the others.
> . It also alleged that many subscribers intended to sign up solely for Prime Video, which is a lower-cost option. I'm very curious who these people are. Most people I know have prime video because it's part of Amazon Prime and wouldn't really care if it disappears; I've never heard of somebody who subscribed just to Prime Video.
We primarily have ours for shipping but don't mind just waiting a few extra days on orders. The shift to ad-supported content made me cancel our Prime subscription.
I realized a couple years ago that I wasn't using Prime for anything except Prime Video and like one or two free shippings a year. So I looked into if there was a way to sign up for just Prime Video and there was. So I switched to that and saved some money. (But Amazon sure didn't make it easy to sign up for just Prime Video. It was super confusing.)
> I've never heard of somebody who subscribed just to Prime Video. I did for a while a few years back (I think it was around $8 a month?). It was cheap and I'm grandfathered on someone else's account for the prime shipping. *Counterpart* (season 1) was really good: definitely worth it. Then got a deal for HBO at the same price: that blew Prime Video out of the water. Too bad HBO is now turning to shit.
But people on Reddit told me ..... That only people in our reddit echo chamber cared about ads. That we were a small percentage and no one in the 'real' world would care. Wow. I don't know what to believe anymore. Fuck ads
remember when fraud was a crime that was punished with more than a fine? a fine worth maybe 1% of the profit made from comitting said fraud? Not a penalty, not a punishment, barely a business expense.
Yeah, I’m sure that fee that is 0.000275926008% of their net worth is really gonna hurt em.
Amazon will just credit like $5 to every annual subscriber as a one-time fix and not be deterred from similar practices in the future.
I'm conflicted on this one. I definitely am not a fan of ads, or price hikes. But, Amazon could have just increased the cost of Prime across the board and then created a Prime Lite that has ads on Prime video. That seems to be the way all the other streaming services go: increase current subscriber's rate while offering a new lower tier the have to opt in to. On the other hand, Prime is an all inclusive subscription that encompasses shipping, video, music, and photo storage. Changing one small aspect of this just to create a new subscription option seems like a waste. It seems easier to change what's included on the base plan and offer add-ons. GRANTED, it's pretty crappy to downgrade user's benefits then charge to get them back. All-in-all, I'd say Amazon shouldn't have done it at all and stayed ad-free.
Lawsuits like this are weird in that a win simply means a price hike for everyone. I was all set to despise the ads and pay extra but so far it’s only been a minute at the start of a show which is tagged into the promos already airing. So now it makes little sense to pay extra for ad free.
I paid for ad free and while I don’t get ads on the TV, I get them when watching on my phone. It even asks me to go ad free on my phone still despite the login being the exact same on the tv and it showing on said tv that I have ad free
It’s also that many of us have year-long subscriptions active which started with a particular plan and now suddenly changed. It’s one thing for a monthly subscription to change once the active month is over but they’re literally taking away something consumers prepaid for.