Additional costs for advertising freedom
Consumer advocates want to sue against Amazon advertising
February 2, 2024, 10:34 a.m
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Shortly before the end of the year, Amazon informed its streaming customers that advertising would be shown in the future. This can be prevented for an extra fee. That doesn’t work, complains the consumer advice center – and takes it to court.
The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (VZBV) has announced a lawsuit against Amazon because of its announcement that it will place advertising on the Prime Video streaming service. Amazon has presented its customers with “a fait accompli,” said VZBV boss Ramona Pop to the “Handelsblatt”. The change was announced at too short a notice and was being introduced without the explicit consent of the customers.
A few days ago, Amazon announced that it would be placing advertising in films and series “to a limited extent” starting next week. The company initially did not provide any further information on the length and frequency of the spots. If you don’t want advertising, you can pay a monthly surcharge of 2.99 euros.
According to “Handelsblatt”, the VZBV sees this as “a significant change to the contract”, and for this the consent of the users must be obtained in accordance with legal requirements. However, they were only informed about the change at short notice. It is also a “hidden price increase” because in the future the customer will have to pay almost three euros more for the offer that they had previously received.
The VZBV initially warned the German Amazon subsidiary for “disregarding consumer rights,” said Pop. The lawsuit is expected to follow in the coming weeks. The VZBV boss assumes that Prime Video users “continue to be entitled to the ad-free option for the previously contractually agreed amount”.