Back in September, Amazon created an ad-free tier to its Prime video streaming service. To enjoy Prime without ads, consumers now have to pay an extra $3.99 per month on top of the $8.99 they already pay. But it was recently revealed that the company also quietly stopped supporting Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos to subscribers who don’t fork over the extra cash, but they didn’t bother to let anyone know.
German website 4kfilme.de first noticed the change this week, and Amazon spokesperson Katie Barker confirmed it, telling The Verge, “Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad free option, on relevant titles.”
Dolby Vision is a set of standards for high dynamic range video, and Dolby Atmos is a popular surround-sound format, so this change ultimately means that higher quality audio and video, once available to all Prime subscribers, is now locked behind a four-dollar-per-month paywall.
Class action lawsuit filed against Amazon
In related Amazon news, a class action lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in California contends Amazon breached its contract with of over 100 million subscribers and violated state consumer protection laws when it added tiered service.
According to the suit, people who purchased annual subscriptions before Amazon changed its pricing schedule were misled by the company. “Reasonable consumers expect that, if you purchase a subscription with ad-free streaming of movies and TV shows, that the ad-free streaming for movies and TV shows is available for the duration of the purchased subscription,” the suit reads.
