Are you an Amazon Prime user? If so, you should register for a class action lawsuit against Amazon. Consumer advocates, specifically the Saxony Consumer Advice Center, are taking action against the company. Over 18,000 Amazon customers had already registered in the lawsuit register by the end of May 2024.
An official letter will be sent to you by regular mail a few days after you register online. You must keep this letter. After that, you just need to wait and do nothing.
Background: Amazon changed its streaming service Amazon Prime Video on February 5, 2024. Since then, Amazon Prime Video users have seen more advertising and have lost some features – unless they pay a monthly surcharge of 2.99 euros. However, Amazon did not obtain the consent of the affected Amazon Prime customers for this measure, but simply informed them.
The Saxony Consumer Advice Center considers this practice to be illegal and is therefore seeking a class action lawsuit against Amazon. The center writes: “Such changes within an ongoing contract are only possible with the consent of the consumer. We therefore consider them to be illegal. Other streaming services show how it is done correctly and ask their customers beforehand. Amazon, on the other hand, preferred to make the changes unilaterally and on its own initiative.”
These Amazon customers can join the class action lawsuit: Every customer who had and paid for an Amazon Prime subscription before February 5, 2024 can register for this class action lawsuit. This applies to both Amazon customers who have taken out the additional subscription and customers who have done nothing and simply let their Prime subscription continue. They do not have to have used Prime Video and may have already canceled the subscription – that is not a problem.
The consumer advocates calculate: “An individual is therefore entitled to a refund of 2.99 euros per month, or 35.88 euros per year. Since the proceedings are expected to last for several years, the compensation may continue to grow accordingly.” And they continue: “All Prime users in Germany are affected. This could be very expensive for the corporate giant. With around 17 million potential plaintiffs, the total volume at stake is around 610 million euros per year.”
Here you must register online with the Federal Office of Justice for the “remedial action against Amazon Digital Germany GmbH”.
Amazon has issued a statement: “In order to continue to offer attractive content for Prime members and to increase this investment over a long period of time, Prime Video films and series episodes in Germany contain limited advertising, similar to the advertising that can already be seen in other Prime Video content in Germany, such as live sports. We have informed our customers about this in advance, transparently and in line with legal requirements. We offer an ad-free option for customers who prefer this, and all customers have the right to cancel their membership at any time. We have made this clear in our communications.”