Australia sues Amazon over 'unfair' Prime streaming service terms

Australia's competition regulator has launched legal action against Amazon, alleging the e-commerce giant used unfair contract terms for its Prime streaming service. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claims Amazon had more than one million annual subscribers on contracts containing five unfair terms between November 2023 and August 2025.

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We allege that Amazon AU included multiple unfair terms in its contracts with Australian annual Prime subscribers, and it then relied on some of these terms to bring ads onto Amazon Prime Video.

The ACCC specifically points to one term that allegedly allowed Amazon to introduce advertising to Prime Video in July 2024. Subscribers who wished to avoid ads were then required to pay an additional $2.99 per month. ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb stated that consumers were "left with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they'd initially signed up for."

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Consumers who wanted to avoid ads were left with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they'd initially signed up for.

The lawsuit further alleges that Amazon's U.S. division helped draft these contracts and was responsible for the global decision to add advertising to Prime Video. Ms. Cass-Gottlieb emphasized that all businesses must ensure their standard contracts with consumers are fair and warned that contraventions of unfair contract term protections carry significant penalties. The ACCC urges all businesses, particularly subscription services, to review their contracts for compliance with Australian consumer law.

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All businesses are required to balance rights and obligations in their standard form contracts with consumers to ensure they are fair.