Australia sues Amazon over Prime contract terms and forced ads
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon , alleging the company buried unfair terms in its Prime subscription contracts and then used them to introduce advertising on Prime Video while denying customers any refund.
The case centers on standard-form contracts held by more than one million annual Prime subscribers between November 2023 and August 2025. The ACCC says five terms let Amazon unilaterally degrade the service or change conditions with no obligation to provide pro rata refunds. As of July 2024, more than 850,000 annual subscribers were moved onto an ad-supported tier for the rest of their prepaid term; keeping an ad-free experience cost an extra $2.99 per month.
The regulator is seeking penalties, consumer redress, declarations and costs. The action targets a tactic now common across streaming — adding ads to plans customers already paid for — and tests whether Australia’s unfair-contract-terms rules constrain mid-contract changes that platforms have treated as routine.