A German court has ruled that Amazon had no right to introduce adverts unilaterally for its paying Prime Video clients.
The first district court of Munich decided on December 16 in favour of a suit brought by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV), a customer protection NGO.
The customer protection watchdog had accused the US tech giant of having introduced ads for customers of its paid video-on-demand service Amazon Prime, without any legal basis.
In early 2024, Amazon had informed German Prime customers via e-mail that they would have to watch ads before the start of videos from February 2024. Customers who did not want to see advertisements would have to pay an extra €2.99 per month on top of the regular Amazon Prime membership fee.
The VBZV had argued that change was unfair as customers had expected an ad-free offer when signing up for Amazon Prime – and this freedom had been a key factor in their buying decision.
Amazon had argued its Prime offering was a service similar to public broadcasting where advertisements could legally be part of the programme.
The Munich court ruled in favour of the plaintiff and said Amazon’s 2024 e-mail was misleading under Section 5 of the Unfair Competition Act, as it suggested to customers that Amazon only owed them a service that included ads.
Neither Amazon’s terms of use or German laws, though, allowed for such a unilateral change of contract.
Amazon’s terms of use only allowed the tech giant to change the video content it offered (the films and series) but not the type of content (with or without advertisements).
The court found that Amazon had to inform its German Prime customers within two weeks in writing that they had a right to an ad-free Prime experience and that the company was not allowed to change this unilaterally.
An Amazon spokesperson said it respected the decision of the court but did not agree with its reasoning, adding: “We have transparently informed our customers ahead of time and in accordance with the law about the update to ads in Prime Video.”
The company also said it may appeal the verdict.
The Federation of German Consumer Organisations said the verdict was a positive signal for a class action lawsuit it had filed with another court in which the VZBV is trying to get compensation for affected Prime customers.
