Amazon is facing a bombshell class action lawsuit accusing the tech giant of purposely letting the software in Fire TV Stick devices peter out so customers would feel compelled to buy newer versions.
The company allegedly “bricked” its first- and second-generation Fire TV Stick devices by cutting off software support and upgrades, according to a suit filed in California state court earlier this month.
As the TV remotes started to glitch, Amazon did not provide refunds or software upgrades to customers – an attempt to steer customers toward replacement purchases, the suit alleged.
Amazon did not immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
The first- and second-gen Fire TV Stick devices were released in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and allowed customers to stream thousands of movies and shows from platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix by plugging the Stick into a TV’s HDMI port.
Amazon has since released half a dozen new TV remotes, including two new models launched last year – the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and 4K Plus, which retail on Amazon’s site for about $40 to $50 at full price. The online retail giant often discounts its remotes.
In December 2022, it stopped providing any software support or updates for its first-gen devices, according to the lawsuit. It ended updates for second-gen remotes in March 2023, the suit said.
Bill Merewhuader, a California resident and the plaintiff in the suit, purchased a second-generation Fire TV Stick from Best Buy in 2018 – but the failing software eventually left the remote “inoperable,” forcing him to buy a new version in 2024, according to the suit.
Some Amazon customers have complained that their remotes have stopped working altogether, while others have claimed that their devices are much slower and face significant buffering times, according to the lawsuit.
The suit – which is seeking unspecified damages and a nationwide class action status – accuses Amazon of “deceptive” marketing, claiming the company never informed customers that it would cut off updates to the devices for any reason, at any time.
Federal regulators have questioned whether “bricking” practices could violate legal requirements for products sold with written warranties.
“Manufacturers’ failure to disclose the duration of their software support commitments warrants further consideration by policymakers and law enforcers,” the Federal Trade Commission said in a staff report in November 2024.
“Manufacturers marketing a device as having certain features and then subsequently failing to provide software updates needed to maintain those features raises concerns about consumer harm resulting from deceptive practices,” the report stated.
It added that it “may be a deceptive practice” if a company fails to disclose how long it will provide necessary software updates when disclosing how long a product will function.
The FTC did not immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
