Amazon lawsuit claims you never truly own Prime Video movies and it’s “misleading” viewers

A new class action lawsuit has accused Amazon of misleading subscribers with “bait and switch” digital movie sales on Prime Video.

The streaming service era has revolutionized (or ruined, depending on who you ask) how people acquire and watch content. Now, your everyday person has multiple direct debits to different platforms, they’ll buy or rent films on demand after their theatrical release, and they probably don’t have much in the way of physical media.

Let’s say you wanted to purchase Superman on VOD. You go to Prime Video, press the buy button, and $29.99 later, you ‘own’ a digital copy of the film… or do you?

According to a proposed class action lawsuit filed in Washington federal court last Friday (August 22), there’s a surprising answer: no.

Amazon accused of misleading Prime Video customers with digital movie sales

Prime Video

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit claims Amazon is misleading viewers into believing they’ve fully purchased a movie, when in reality, they’ve only bought a license to watch a film that could be revoked.

Why would that happen? Well, if Amazon lost the rights to host a particular title, you’d no longer be able to watch it, even though you purchased it digitally.

Amazon’s small print spells it out: “Purchased Digital Content will generally continue to be available to you for download or streaming from the Service, as applicable, but may become unavailable due to potential content provider licensing restrictions or for other reasons, and Amazon will not be liable to you if Purchased Digital Content becomes unavailable for further download or streaming.”

So, unlike a DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K UHD disc, which you own and can watch in perpetuity, a digital movie from Prime Video exists solely at the behest of Amazon.

Unsplash

Wright Noel, a lawyer speaking on behalf of those behind the lawsuit, said Amazon “does not meet the standards set by the statute for a clear and conspicuous notice that the thing they are purchasing is a revocable license to access the digital good.”

“The warning is buried at the very bottom of the screen, in font that is considerably smaller than the other text on the screen,” he added.

It echoes the Stop Killing Games campaign, which is protesting the practice of developers effectively ‘killing’ games by rendering them unplayable when their servers are taken down; for example, The Crew (Splitgate was also saved by the movement).

However, Amazon faced a similar lawsuit in 2020 that claimed it “secretly reserves the right” to withdraw a user’s access to a movie or TV show. The company argued that the conditions of any digital sale are available to customers at the point of purchase, and “an individual does not need to read an agreement in order to be bound by it.”

The new lawsuit may have more potential, considering a new California law that prohibits any transaction being described as a “purchase” if someone isn’t entitled to unrestricted access to what they’ve bought.

In the meantime, check out what’s dropping this year with our 2025 movie calendar and our list of the best movies of all time.