In a brand new proposed class motion lawsuit in opposition to Amazon [via The Hollywood Reporter], the corporate has been accused of “bait and swap” (a sort of fraudulent exercise) on Prime Video. This implies they’re allegedly deceptive shoppers into considering they’ve bought content material once they’re solely getting a license to look at, which might be revoked at any time if Amazon loses the rights to a title.
The potential lawsuit claims: “violations of California unfair competitors, false promoting and shopper authorized treatments legal guidelines. It seeks unspecified damages, together with disgorgement of earnings and punitive damages for allegedly deliberately malicious conduct.” Filed in Washington federal courtroom on August 22 2025, the proposal claims that Amazon is “misrepresenting the character of film and TV transactions throughout the buy course of”.
In case that is not clear, let’s take the unwatched digital model of Conclave I ‘purchased’ on Prime Video so my mother and father did not miss out on this 12 months’s Oscar hype for example. I’ve a digital copy, but when Prime Video’s licensing agreements have been to alter, so too might the model of Conclave I’ve entry to. If Amazon have been to now not have the rights to the title, my mother and father would lose the film.
Because the grievance factors out, “you obtain a license to the video and also you comply with our phrases,” that means that what you truly get for parting together with your cash is written within the small print. However ought to Prime Video be allowed to inform subscribers that they’ve “purchased” a film, and what does this imply for us customers in the long term?
Earlier than we go any additional, let’s not neglect that this is not the primary lawsuit of this type Prime Video has had in opposition to it. In 2020, a separate lawsuit alleged “unfair competitors and false promoting over the apply”. Whereas Amazon has not but publicly commented on the brand new class motion, it claimed in 2020 that utilizing the phrase “purchase” is not misleading to subscribers as a result of shoppers already perceive that their purchases is subjective to license agreements. 5 years later, and I would say that seemingly is not the case.
Again in 2023, a Californian legislature introduced the issue to the forefront once more. Players discovered that their entry to The Crew can be stopped after Ubisoft shut down the sport’s servers, inspiring the ‘Cease Killing Video games’ motion that took goal at publishers destroying previously-bought shopper titles.
Nevertheless, it is modifications to Californian legislature this 12 months work to our new lawsuit’s benefit. Basically, a state regulation has barred the usage of the phrase ‘buy’ in a transaction except “it affords unrestricted possession of the product.” Clearly, our Prime Video small print would not match into this, and Amazon can hardly afford to lose such an enormous revenue share as California (if it was its personal separate nation, California can be the fourth largest economic system on this planet).
We do not but know what any of this implies for streamers with a Prime Video subscription on a wider degree, however to me, it is an extremely stark reminder that we have to preserve investing in bodily media as a lot as attainable. Sure, it is dearer than paying a flat charge each month for all of the content material you possibly can probably need. However it’s like relationship: should you grow to be extra intentional in what you put money into, the outcomes are lifelong.
If in case you have bodily copies of films and TV reveals that you just love, you possibly can by no means be parted from them, and it is the one method we will now assure the safety of what we purchase. Possibly it is time for the greatest streaming providers to revert to the nice previous days of sending us discs within the publish to look at and return once we’re executed with them, identical to Netflix did within the late 2000s.
