A German court has reprimanded Amazon: The US company is not allowed to unilaterally change the terms of its Prime Video streaming service in Germany and send advertisements to viewers’ screens and displays.
The judgement by the Munich I Regional Court means that the Federation of German Consumer Organisations has won a lawsuit against Amazon, the court announced on Wednesday.
Amazon is now required to send customers a “correction letter.”
However, the judgement is not final, and Amazon reserves the right to appeal the decision: “We will review the judgement to determine our next steps,” said a spokesman.
Ramona Pop, chairwoman of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, described it as a very important judgement: “It shows that the additional advertising on Amazon Prime Video should not have occurred without the involvement of the affected consumers.”
According to the consumer organization, members still have the right to Prime without advertising – “and without additional costs.”
Ad-free costs €2.99 more
Amazon informed Prime Video customers by email at the beginning of 2024 that advertising would be shown to a limited extent from February, the judgement said.
Those who did not want to see advertising were to pay €2.99 ($3.51) more per month. The court saw this approach as a violation of fair competition.
Court: Customers must be able to rely on contract
The judges deemed the email misleading. According to the judgement, Amazon misled customers into believing it was entitled to a unilateral contract change.
The court concluded that neither Amazon’s terms of use nor the law allow such a unilateral change.
At the time of contract conclusion, customers had expected an ad-free offer, according to the court’s statement. And because Amazon had made an ad-free programme the “subject of the contract,” the company must be held to it.
Amazon disagrees
Amazon disagreed: “While we respect the court’s decision, we do not agree with the conclusions,” said the company spokesman. “We have informed our customers transparently, in advance, and in accordance with applicable law about the update to advertising on Prime Video.”