Amazon's Prime Video Faces Legal Action in Australia
Amazon's Prime Video streaming service is currently under investigation by Australian authorities following allegations of unfair contract terms related to the introduction of advertisements.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has initiated legal proceedings against Amazon, asserting that the company violated consumer protection laws by imposing unfair contract conditions on more than one million rs between November 2023 and August 2025.
"Consumers who wanted to avoid ads were left with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they'd initially signed up for," ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
Amazon has been contacted for comment regarding these allegations.
Background on Prime Video and Advertising Changes
For over ten years, Prime Video was offered as an ad-free streaming service included with Amazon's Prime subscription, which itself is an upgrade to the company’s core delivery service. The Prime subscription became available in Australia in 2018.
In early 2024, Amazon began rolling out advertisements within Prime Video globally. Upon implementing this change in Australia, the company informed rs that to continue enjoying an ad-free experience, they would need to pay an additional monthly fee, increasing the subscription cost to 12.99 Australian dollars.
At the time of this change, the ACCC noted that more than 850,000 Australian rs had already prepaid for a full year of Prime service.
"Those rs were provided with a degraded, ad-supported Prime Video service for the balance of their prepaid term unless they paid for the ad-free option," the ACCC stated in a filing.
Details of the ACCC's Claims
The ACCC alleges that Amazon relied on five unfair terms within contracts signed by over a million customers between 1 November 2023 and 18 August 2025.
"Those contracts included five terms permitting [Amazon Australia] to unilaterally make materially adverse changes to its services (including, but not limited to, Prime Video) and the terms governing those services, without any contractual entitlement for rs to receive refunds or other meaningful redress," the ACCC explained.
Previous Government Scrutiny of Amazon
Amazon's consumer practices have attracted regulatory attention in other countries as well. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken legal action against Amazon over allegations that the company enrolled consumers in Prime without their consent and made subscription cancellations difficult.
Additionally, Amazon recently agreed to pay a fine to the FTC to resolve claims that it subjected victims of online shopping fraud to a "Kafkaesque ordeal."
In the United Kingdom, government investigations have focused on Amazon’s product listing practices and the widespread issue of fake product reviews.
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