• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 13, 2024

An Amazon Prime subscriber is suing the company over its recent decision to insert ads in videos, unless consumers pay an additional $2.99 a month.

In a class-action complaint filed late last week in federal court, California resident Wilbert Napoleon alleges that when he renewed his annual subscription to Prime last June, he believed the service would continue to offer ad-free streaming.

He argues in the complaint that subscribers like him “already paid for the ad-free version” of Prime, and shouldn't now have to pay an additional $2.99 a month.

Amazon said in September that it would introduce ads in Prime movies and tv shows, unless subscribers paid an extra $2.99 a month. The company isn't inserting ads in videos that people purchase or rent.

Late last month, Amazon rolled out the new ad tier.

Napoleon points in his complaint to Amazon's February 2011 press release announcing Prime video, which stated that Prime members would receive “unlimited, commercial-free streaming.”

“Based on Amazon’s advertisements, reasonable consumers who subscribed to Amazon Prime before the change reasonably expected that their Amazon Prime subscription would include ad-free streaming of movies and tv shows for the duration of the subscription,” he alleges.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, includes claims that Amazon broke its contract with users, engaged in false advertising and violated Washington and California state consumer protection laws.