Prime Video Ads Land Amazon in Court

Amazon is facing a legal challenge in Australia after adding advertisements to its Prime Video streaming service and asking users to pay extra for an ad-free experience.

The legal case has been filed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the country's consumer protection and competition authority. The regulator says Amazon treated its customers unfairly by changing the Prime Video service after many people had already paid for an annual Prime membership.

According to the ACCC, Amazon introduced advertisements on Prime Video in 2024. Before that, Prime Video was available without ads as part of the Prime membership. After the change, customers who wanted to continue watching without advertisements had to pay an extra monthly fee.

The regulator says this affected more than one million annual Prime subscribers in Australia between November 2023 and August 2025. More than 850,000 customers had already paid for a full year of Prime membership before the ads were introduced.

The ACCC claims that these subscribers received a lower-quality service than they originally paid for. It also argues that Amazon used unfair contract terms that allowed the company to make major changes to its services without giving refunds or compensation to customers.

According to the complaint, Amazon charged an additional A$2.99 per month for ad-free streaming, even though users had already paid A$79 for their yearly Prime membership.

The consumer watchdog also alleges that Amazon included several unfair terms in its subscription agreements. These terms reportedly allowed the company to change Prime services whenever it wanted without offering customers a fair solution.

The investigation began after many users complained about the sudden arrival of advertisements on Prime Video. The ACCC is now asking the Federal Court to impose financial penalties on Amazon. It is also seeking refunds or compensation for affected customers, along with other legal orders.

Amazon has responded by saying that it is carefully reviewing the legal case. The company added that it cooperated with the ACCC throughout the investigation.

Prime Video has been part of Amazon Prime for many years, offering movies and TV shows without advertisements. Amazon launched its Prime service in Australia in 2018 and started introducing ads on Prime Video in several countries during 2024. The court will now decide whether Amazon's actions violated Australian consumer laws.