Amazon Is Getting Sued Over Its Prime Video Fee Hike

If you’re pissed that Amazon recently pulled a fast one and inserted ads into its previously ad-free streaming service Prime Video, you can now make your wrath felt. A recently proposed class-action lawsuit is asking the e-commerce giant to fork over $5 million to compensate users who were “deceived” by Amazon’s flip-flopping on ads. The suit accuses the company of breach of contract and false advertising, among other things.

Last year, Amazon announced that it would be adding limited advertisements to its streaming service while charging a premium to go ad-free. People who didn’t want ads shoved in their face while streaming would now have to pay $3 extra. Naturally, people haven’t been thrilled, myself included.

Now, a lawsuit filed by a Santa Monica law firm in California federal court gives angry streamers the opportunity to exact vengeance, arguing that the company breached its contract with subscribers and broke “consumer protection laws in California and Washington,” The Hollywood Reporter notes. The suit claims:

For years, Amazon advertised that its Prime subscription included ad-free streaming of movies and tv shows. Like other consumers, Plaintiff purchased the Prime subscription, believing that it would include ad-free streaming of movies and tv shows. But it does not.

The reason Amazon has given for its annoying price hike is that it needs more money to continue churning out original programming. That programming, as I’ve groused about previously, amounts to a bunch of mediocre-to-unwatchable televisual bilge that isn’t worth the money the corporation paid for it. That rationale may be more of an arbitrary justification, however, as Amazon is only one of many streaming services that have recently introduced ads to their paid subscription models.

Amazon declined to comment for this story.