Key facts
- Australia's competition regulator is suing Amazon's Australian unit.
- The lawsuit alleges unfair contract terms were used to introduce advertisements on Prime Video.
- Over a million subscribers were allegedly affected between November 2023 and August 2025.
- The ACCC claims Amazon unilaterally changed services without providing refunds or redress to affected subscribers.
Australia's consumer watchdog has sued Amazon's Australian unit, alleging the tech giant introduced advertisements on its Prime Video streaming service using unfair contract terms. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claims Amazon violated consumer protection laws by imposing these terms on over a million annual subscribers between November 2023 and August 2025.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb stated that consumers who wished to avoid ads were compelled to pay more to maintain the service they initially subscribed to without advertisements. Prime Video, which had been a commercial-free offering included with Amazon Prime subscriptions since its Australian launch in 2018, began rolling out ads globally in early 2024. When ads were introduced in Australia, subscribers were informed they would need to pay an additional monthly fee to retain an ad-free experience, increasing the monthly cost to 12.99 Australian dollars.
The ACCC highlighted that subscribers who had prepaid for their annual service received a degraded, ad-supported Prime Video for the remainder of their term unless they paid the extra fee. The regulator cited five unfair contract terms that allowed Amazon Australia to unilaterally make significant changes to its services without providing subscribers with refunds or other meaningful redress. Amazon has previously faced legal action in the US from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerning issues such as signing up customers for Prime without consent and making cancellations difficult. The company also recently agreed to an FTC fine to resolve claims related to its handling of online shopping fraud victims.