Amazon recently made headlines with its controversial decision to essentially break old Kindles on purpose, not because anything was wrong with them, but because they want users to be forced to upgrade to newer versions.
As you would expect, this announcement went over really poorly with readers, but a new class action suit alleges that Amazon has actually been breaking its own products for quite a long time now in order to force upgrades.
In the lawsuit, which was filed by Californian plaintiff Bill Merewhuader, Amazon’s first and second-generation Fire TV Stick models are specifically called out as being slowed down on purpose as a way to force users to upgrade to more expensive options, as reported by Top Class Actions.
What does the lawsuit say happened to old Fire Sticks?
A lack of support and poor communication
According to the lawsuit filing, the main issue is the lack of software updates from Amazon for older models of Fire Stick. By purposefully cutting off critical support for these devices, the plaintiff alleges that Amazon shortened the lifespan of a device prematurely in an effort to force users to pay for more expensive devices before they were ready to.
Additionally, the plaintiff calls out Amazon for poor communication regarding the life of their devices, saying the company never disclosed that Fire Stick software support could be discontinued at all, which he says was one of the main reasons why he bought an Amazon device over a different brand of streaming stick in the first place.
What happens next?
A lengthy court proceeding
Though the class action lawsuit has officially been filed as of today, don’t start checking your mailbox for a check any time soon. As with any class action lawsuit, there is a lengthy court proceeding ahead that will probably take a year or more, depending on appeals. And since a part of the restitution the plaintiff is seeking is an order requiring Amazon to compensate affected consumers, you can bet they’ll be fighting this one as hard as they can in court.
